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Greg Mitchell

グレッグ・ミッチェル

Greg Mitchell

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1947-01-01 （Upstate New York, U.S.）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Upstate New York → Nyack, New York, U.S.

Career

Occupations
Author, Journalist, Editor, Documentary filmmaker
Active Years
1968-
Influenced By
Robert Jay Lifton, Peter Knobler

Awards

Goldsmith Book Prize
1993
Work: The Campaign of the Century
Organization: Joan Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School
Result: 受賞
Organization of American Historians top film/TV award
2024
Work: Atomic Cover-up
Organization: Organization of American Historians
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Campaign of the Century

1992 Political history / Media studies

Examines Upton Sinclair's 1934 campaign for governor of California and the rise of media-driven politics; adapted for PBS and other media.

Media and politicsElectoral historyRepresentation and censorship
Adaptations
  • [TV documentary] We Have a Plan (episode of The Great Depression) / Lyn Goldfarb (1993)
  • [Stage (vaudeville-style musical)] Campaign of the Century (musical) (2004)

Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and The Greatest Movie Never Made

2011 History / Investigative journalism

Investigative account of suppressed American military film footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the political decisions that buried it.

Atomic bombing and censorshipWar documentationHistorical recovery
Adaptations
  • [Documentary film] Atomic Cover-up (2021)

The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill

2016 History / Documentary studies

Details escapes beneath the Berlin Wall and the political controversies surrounding historic films documenting them.

Cold War historyVisual documentationPolitics and expression

Joy in Mudville: A Little League Memoir

2000 Memoir

A memoir reflecting on family life and Little League experiences.

FamilyParentingCommunity life

Bibliography

  • The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (2020)
  • The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill (2016)
  • Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and The Greatest Movie Never Made (2011)
  • The Age of WikiLeaks (2011)
  • Bradley Manning: Truth and Consequences (2011)
  • So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed in Iraq (2008)
  • October Light: Paris and Auvers (photographs, 2006)
  • Joy in Mudville: A Little League Memoir (2000/2002)
  • Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon Vs Helen Gahagan Douglas (1998)
  • Very Seventies: A Cultural History of the 1970s (1995, editor)
  • Truth and Consequences: 7 Who Would Not Be Silenced (1987)
  • Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial (1996, with Robert Jay Lifton)
  • Who Owns Death?: Capital Punishment, the American Conscience, and the End of Executions (2002, with Robert Jay Lifton)

Adaptations

  • Following the Ninth (documentary, co-producer)
  • We Have a Plan (adaptation for PBS series The Great Depression)
  • Atomic Cover-up (documentary film)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Investigative-reporting styleBlend of historical narration and non-fictionClear, fact-driven prose
Recurring Motifs
Relationship between media and powerWar and memory (especially atomic bombing)Censorship and restoration of records

Legacy

Greg Mitchell is recognized as a non-fiction author and journalist focused on the relationship between media and politics and on uncovering and restoring wartime records. Through his books and documentaries he has contributed to re-examining history and advocating journalistic responsibility.

Archives

  • Joan Shorenstein Center (Harvard Kennedy School) archives
  • Library of Congress (related holdings)

In Popular Culture

  • Exposure through documentary films and PBS series

Quotes

  • [A]ll our coverage on all subjects—is not to be partisan...but we believe in the—what should be the main principle of journalism...is to be skeptical—to raise questions, to not take what officials say as the gospel truth—unless it's really proven—if there's documents.
    Source: Interview with Echo Chamber Project (2004) (2004)

Trivia

  • Credited with helping to publish one of the first magazine articles on Bruce Springsteen while at Crawdaddy! in the 1970s.
  • Editor of Nuclear Times from 1982 to 1986.
  • The Campaign of the Century won the Goldsmith Book Prize in 1993 and was adapted for PBS and as a stage musical.
  • The documentary Atomic Cover-up screened at multiple festivals and won an Organization of American Historians award in 2024 (film/TV).
  • Wrote a blog on media and politics for The Nation (2009–2016).
  • Married to writer Barbara Bedway and lives in Nyack, New York; son Andy is a filmmaker.