Robert Mann, Manship Chair, Manship School of Mass Communication & Senior Public Policy Fellow, Reilly Center for Public Affairs, Louisiana State University
In addition to holding the Manship Chair at the Manship School of Mass Communication and serving as a Senior Public Policy Fellow at the Reilly Center for Public Affairs at Louisiana State University, Robert Mann also teaches courses in political communication and is currently researching the history of U.S. war propaganda and dissent. He is editor of the Media & Public Affairs book series, published jointly by the Manship School and LSU Press.
Previously, Mann was Communications Director to Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. Mann also served for 19 years as a U.S. Senate aide. He was state director to U.S. Senator John Breaux of Louisiana and served as Breaux's Press Secretary. He has also served as press secretary to U.S. Senator Russell Long of Louisiana. He was press secretary for the 1990 re-election campaign of U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, as well as for the 2003 Blanco campaign.
In addition to his public service in government, Mann is also a political historian and journalist. He has published four books, including critically acclaimed political histories of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the International Herald-Tribune, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, The American Prospect and the Houston Chronicle.
Mann has authored When Freedom Would Triumph: The Civil Rights Struggle in Congress, 1954-1968 (LSU Press, 2007); A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam, (Basic Books, 2001); The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell and the Struggle for Civil Rights, (Harcourt Brace, 1996); The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Cold War, (Alpha Books, 2002); and, Legacy to Power: Senator Russell Long of Louisiana (Paragon House, 1992.)
In the early 1980s, Mann covered Louisiana politics as a reporter for the Shreveport Journal and the Monroe News-Star.
