Pulitzer Prize History Winner

A History of American Magazines

by Frank Luther Mott

Summary

Mott chronicles the rise of American magazines from the eighteenth century onward, profiling individual periodicals and the editors, readers, and controversies that defined them. He treats magazines as windows onto the nation's tastes, politics, and intellectual life across changing eras. The sweeping multivolume project became the standard reference for the history of American periodical publishing.

Historical Context & Significance

Mott, a journalism scholar and educator, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1939 for the early volumes of this long running series on American periodicals.