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Book Awards » Pulitzer Prize - General Nonfiction

Pulitzer PrizeCategories: Literary Fiction, General Nonfiction, Biography, History, Drama, Poetry, Memoir / Autobiography
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. The Pulitzer was established by and named after the Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer. The awards are administered by Columbia University in New York City. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. We've sorted our books by the six subcategories in the "letters and drama" category.

2023

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

2022

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
Author: Andrea Elliott
  ?


Other Versions: Paperback

2021

Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Author: David Zucchino
  ?


Other Versions: Paperback

2020

The Undying: Pain, vulnerability, mortality, medicine, art, time, dreams, data, exhaustion, cancer, and care
The Undying: Pain, vulnerability, mortality, medicine, art, time, dreams, data, exhaustion, cancer, and care
Author: Anne Boyer
  ?


Other Versions: Paperback

2020

The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
Author: Greg Grandin
  ?


Other Versions: Paperback

2019

Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America
Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America
Author: Eliza Griswold
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 2


Other Versions: Paperback

2018

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
Author: James Forman
  ?


Other Versions: Paperback

2017

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Author: Matthew Desmond
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 23


Other Versions: Paperback, Paperback, Paperback

2016

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS
Author: Joby Warrick
  ?


Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD (Unabridged), Paperback, Paperback

2015

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Author: Elizabeth Kolbert
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 13


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback

The Market's bargain prices are even better for Paperbackswap club members!
Retail Price: $16.00
Buy New: $12.79 (save 20%) or
Become a PBS member and pay $8.89+1 PBS book credit Help icon(save 44%)

2014

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
Author: Dan Fagin
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 7


Other Versions: Paperback, Paperback

2013

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Author: Gilbert King
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 3


Other Versions: Paperback, Paperback

2012

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Author: Stephen Greenblatt
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 6


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback

2011

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 17


Other Versions: Audio CD (Unabridged,Unabridge), Audio CD (Unabridged,Library -), Paperback, Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover, Paperback

2010

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
Author: David Hoffman
  • Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
 4


Other Versions: Paperback

2009

Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Author: Douglas A. Blackmon
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 3


Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio CD (Library), Audio CD

2008

The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945
Author: Saul Friedlander
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 2


Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio CD (Library), Audio CD

2007

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Author: Lawrence Wright
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 24


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Audio CD (Library ed.), Audio CD (MP3)

2006

Imperial Reckoning : The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
Imperial Reckoning : The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
Author: Caroline Elkins
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 4


Other Versions: Hardcover

The Market's bargain prices are even better for Paperbackswap club members!
Retail Price: $20.00
Buy New: $14.79 (save 26%) or
Become a PBS member and pay $10.89+1 PBS book credit Help icon(save 45%)

2005

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of The CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to 9/11/2001
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of The CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to 9/11/2001
Author: Steve Coll
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 30


Other Versions: Hardcover

2004

Gulag : A History
Gulag : A History
Author: Anne Applebaum
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 13


Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD (Unabridged), Audio CD (MP3 Una)

2003

A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
Author: Samantha Power
  • Currently 4.7/5 Stars.
 6


Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD (MP3 Una), Audio CD (Unabridged), Paperback, Audio CD (MP3 Una)

2002

Carry Me Home : Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
Carry Me Home : Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
Author: Diane McWhorter
  • Currently 3/5 Stars.
 2


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback

2001

Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
Author: Herbert P. Bix
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 4


Other Versions: Hardcover, Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback

2000

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
Author: John W. Dower
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 5


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Hardcover

1999

Annals of the Former World
Annals of the Former World
Author: John McPhee
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 4


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback, Audio Cassette

1998

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Author: Jared Diamond
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 55


Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette (4 Cassettes; 6 Hours), Paperback

1997

Ashes to Ashes : America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Trium ph of Philip Morris
Ashes to Ashes : America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Trium ph of Philip Morris
Author: Richard Kluger
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 1


Other Versions: Hardcover

1996

The Haunted Land : Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism
The Haunted Land : Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism
Author: Tina Rosenberg
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 8


Other Versions: Paperback

1995

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
Author: Jonathan Weiner
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 33


Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD (Unabridged), Audio CD (Unabridged)

1994

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
Author: David Remnick
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 10


Other Versions: Hardcover, Hardcover, Audio Cassette

1993

Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That  Remade America
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
Author: Garry Wills
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 11


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Paperback

1992

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power
Author: Daniel Yergin
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 13


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback

1991

The Ants
The Ants
Author: Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson
  ?


Other Versions: Hardcover

1990

And Their Children After Them : The Legacy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
And Their Children After Them : The Legacy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Author: Dale Maharidge
  ?


Other Versions: Hardcover

1989

A Bright Shining Lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
A Bright Shining Lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
Author: Neil Sheehan
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 11


Other Versions: Hardcover, Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback

1988

The Making of the Atomic Bomb
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Author: Richard Rhodes
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 11


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback, Paperback

1987

Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land
Author: David K. Shipler
  • Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
 4


Other Versions: Hardcover, Paperback, Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Paperback, Paperback

1986

Common Ground : A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
Common Ground : A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
Author: J. Anthony Lukas
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 10


Other Versions: Paperback