The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history of the United States. Thus it is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year."1917 Winners" . The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 2013-12-19. The Pulitzer Prize program has also recognized some historical work with its Biography prize, from 1917, and its General Nonfiction prize, from 1962.
Finalists have been announced since 1980, ordinarily two others beside the winner.
Winners In its first 97 years to 2013, the History Pulitzer was awarded 95 times. Two prizes were given in 1989; none in 1919, 1984, and 1994.
1910s–1970s +Pulitzer Prize for History winners, 1917–1979YearAuthorTitleRef.1917 With Americans of Past and Present Days1918 1919No award presented1920 1921 and Burton J. Hendrick 1922 1923 1924 1925 History of the American Frontier1926 1927 Pinckney's Treaty1928 Main Currents in American Thought1929 1930† 1931 1932 My Experiences in the World War1933† 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 Abraham Lincoln: The War Years1941† 1942 Reveille in Washington, 1860–18651943 Paul Revere and the World He Lived In1944 1945 Unfinished Business1946 1947 Scientists against Time1948 Across the Wide Missouri1949 The Disruption of American Democracy1950 Art and Life in America1951 The Old Northwest, Pioneer Period 1815–18401952 The Uprooted1953 The Era of Good Feelings1954 A Stillness at Appomattox1955 Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History1956 The Age of Reform1957 Russia Leaves the War: Soviet-American Relations, 1917–19201958 Banks and Politics in America1959† and Jean Schneider The Republican Era: 1869–19011960 In the Days of McKinley1961 Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference1962 1963 Washington: Village and Capital, 1800–18781964 Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town1965 1966† 1967 Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West1968 1969 Origins of the Fifth Amendment: The Right against Self-Incrimination1970 Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department1971Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom1972 Neither Black nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States1973 People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization1974 1975 Jefferson and His Time1976 Lamy of Santa Fe1977† (Completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher) 1978 1979
1980s Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year. +Pulitzer Prize for History winners, 1980–1989YearAuthorTitleResultRef.1980Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of SlaveryWinnerFinalistFinalist1981American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876WinnerOver Here: The First World War and American SocietyFinalistFinalist1982Mary Chesnut's Civil WarWinnerWhite Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African HistoryFinalistPower and Culture: The Japanese-American War, 1941–1945Finalist1983WinnerFinalistSouthern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old SouthFinalist1984No Award presented1985Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, Alfred E. KahnWinnerFinalistFinalist1986...the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space AgeWinnerLabor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family from Slavery to the PresentFinalistNovus Ordo Seclorum: the Intellectual Origins of the ConstitutionFinalistEmigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North AmericaFinalist1987Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the RevolutionWinnerEisenhower: At War, 1943–1945FinalistBearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceFinalist1988WinnerFinalistFinalist1989Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963WinnerBattle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War EraWinnerReconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution – 1863–1877FinalistFinalist
1990s +Pulitzer Prize for History winners, 1990–1999YearAuthorTitleResultRef.1990 In Our Image: America's Empire in the PhilippinesWinnerFinalistAmerican Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870–1970Finalist1991 WinnerMaking a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939FinalistFinalistAmerica in 1857: A Nation on the BrinkFinalist1992 WinnerNature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great WestFinalistFinalistProfits in the Wilderness: Entrepreneurship and the Founding of New England Towns in the Seventeenth CenturyFinalistFinalist1993 WinnerFinalistLincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade AmericaFinalist1994No award givenCrime and Punishment in American HistoryFinalistCase Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFKFinalistWilliam Faulkner and Southern HistoryFinalist1995 No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War IIWinnerStories of ScottsboroFinalistLincoln in American MemoryFinalist1996 William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American RepublicWinnerFinalistDark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen BombFinalist1997 Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the ConstitutionWinnerFinalistFounding Mothers and Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American SocietyFinalist1998 Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and ReligionWinnerBig Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of AmericaFinalistCivic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. HistoryFinalist1999 and Mike Wallace Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898WinnerThis New Ocean: The Story of the First Space AgeFinalistIn a Barren Land: American Indian Dispossession and SurvivalFinalist
2000s +Pulitzer Prize for History winners, 2000–2009YearAuthorTitleResultRef.2000 Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and WarWinnerInto the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania FrontierFinalistFinalist2001 Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary GenerationWinnerWay Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold WarFinalistFinalist2002 WinnerDeep Souths: Delta, Piedmont, and the Sea Island Society in the Age of SegregationFinalistFacing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early AmericaFinalist2003 WinnerAt the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black AmericaFinalistRereading Sex: Battles over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth Century AmericaFinalist2004 WinnerThey Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967FinalistGreat Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller CenterFinalist2005 Washington's CrossingWinnerArc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz AgeFinalistConjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860, volumes 1 & 2Finalist2006 Polio: An American StoryWinnerNew York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century ManhattanFinalistFinalist2007 and Hank Klibanoff WinnerMiddle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005FinalistMayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and WarFinalist2008 What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848WinnerNixon and Kissinger: Partners in PowerFinalistFinalist2009 WinnerThis Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil WarFinalist and Robert WeisbrotFinalist
2010s +Pulitzer Prize for History winners, 2010–2019YearAuthorTitleResultRef.2010 Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the WorldWinnerFordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle CityFinalistEmpire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815Finalist2011 WinnerConfederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War SouthFinalistEden on the Charles: The Making of BostonFinalist2012† Malcolm X: A Life of ReinventionWinnerEmpires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860Finalist and Robbyn SwanFinalistRailroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern AmericaFinalist2013 Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's VietnamWinnerFinalistLincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American HistoryFinalist2014 WinnerFinalistCommand and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of SafetyFinalist2015 Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan PeopleWinnerEmpire of Cotton: A Global HistoryFinalistFinalist2016 Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New AmericaWinnerFinalistMarching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil WarFinalistTarget Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl HarborFinalist2017 Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its LegacyWinnerBrothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved ItFinalistNew England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early AmericaFinalist2018 WinnerFear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity PoliticsFinalistHitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots against Hollywood and AmericaFinalist2019 Frederick Douglass: Prophet of FreedomWinnerCivilizing Torture: An American TraditionFinalistAmerican Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early RepublicFinalist
2020s +Pulitzer Prize for History winners, 2020–presentYearAuthorTitleResultRef.2020 Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in AmericaWinnerFinalistRace for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black HomeownershipFinalist2021 Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black AmericaWinnerFinalistFinalist2022 Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early AmericaWinner Cuba: An American HistoryWinnerUntil Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to ReconstructionFinalist2023 Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal PowerWinnerWatergate: A New HistoryFinalistMichael John WitgenSeeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North AmericaFinalist2024 No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War EraWinnerContinental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of ExpansionFinalistAmerican Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth CenturyFinalist2025Native Nations: A Millennium in North AmericaWinner Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil WarWinnerPlantation Goods: A Material History of American SlaveryFinalist2026We the People: A History of the U.S. ConstitutionWinnerKing of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic MiscalculationFinalistBorn in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American CityFinalist
Repeat winners
Five people have won the Pulitzer Prize for History twice. Margaret Leech, 1942 for Reveille in Washington, 1860–1865 and 1960 for In the Days of McKinley Bernard Bailyn, 1968 for The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution and 1987 for Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution Paul Horgan, 1955 for Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History and 1976 for Lamy of Santa Fe Alan Taylor, 1996 for William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic and 2014 for The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 Don E. Fehrenbacher completed The Impending Crisis by David Potter, for which Potter posthumously won the 1977 prize, and won the 1979 prize himself for The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics.
Notes
See also
List of history awards
References
External links