Forbes has named Coastal Carolina University President Michael T. Benson’s latest book, Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University (Johns Hopkins University Press, October 2022), as one of the best books in higher education for 2023.

“Writing this book was a heavy lift, and I was honored to have been given the task of chronicling the life and contributions of a truly remarkable visionary,” said Benson. “That more people are learning about Daniel Coit Gilman and his legacy is very gratifying, and I am happy his life story made the Forbes’ list for 2023 higher education titles.”

Michael T. Nietzel, president emeritus of Missouri State University and a Forbes senior contributor who compiled the list, said Benson’s book “is a masterful biography of Gilman, the third president of the University of California and the first president of Johns Hopkins University. Benson … explores Gilman’s encouragement of the American research university and its unique combining of the British emphasis on undergraduate education with the German focus on original research and graduate training.”

Benson became the third president of CCU on Jan. 1, 2021. He also holds the title of professor of history at the University. This fall, Benson is teaching an honors seminar on World War I. In Spring 2022, he taught an upper-level course: History of the American University.

He also is the author of Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel and the coauthor of College for the Commonwealth: A Case for Higher Education in American Democracy.

Benson graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science and double minors in English and history from Brigham Young University in 1990. He completed his doctorate in modern history from the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College) in 1995, where he was a Rotary Foundation Scholar and recipient of the Oxford Graduate Overseas Fellowship. He also earned a master’s degree cum laude in nonprofit administration in 2011 from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, where he was the recipient of the prestigious Father Theodore Hesburgh Founder’s Award. In 2021, Benson completed a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University, where he was initiated into the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs National Honor Society.