Pulitzer Prize: History

Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.

The Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards for achievements in American journalism, letters, drama and music. The prizes have been awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University since 1917.

See the other Pulitzer Prize categories winners and all the other literary prize winners we list.

2024

• No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era Jacqueline Jones Winner
• American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century Michael Willrich 
• Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion Elliott West

2023

• Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie Winner
• Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America by Michael John Witgen
• Watergate: A New History by Garrett M. Graff

2022

• Covered With Night by Nicole Eustace Winner
• Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer Winner (two prizes awarded this year)
• Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction by Kate Masur

2021

• Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, by Marcia Chatelain Winner
• The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, by Eric Cervini
• The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West, by Megan Kate Nelson 

2020

• Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, by W. Caleb McDaniel Winner
• Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
• The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, by Greg Grandin 

2019

• Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom David W. Blight Winner
• American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic Victoria Johnson 
• Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition W. Fitzhugh Brundage

2018

• The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea Jack E. Davis Winner
• Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics Kim Phillips-Fein 
• Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America Steven J. Ross 

2017

• Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy Heather Ann Thompson Winner
• Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It Larrie D. Ferreiro
• New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America Wendy Warren

2016

• The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency Annie Jacobsen
• Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War Brian Matthew Jordan
• Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor James M. Scott
• Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America T.J. Stiles Winner

2015

• Encounters at the heart of the world: a history of the Mandan people Elizabeth A. Fenn Winner
• Empire of cotton: a global history Sven Beckert
• An empire on the edge: how Britain came to fight America Nick Bunker

2014

• The internal enemy: slavery and war in Virginia, 1772-1832 Alan Taylor Winner
• A dreadful deceit: the myth of race from the colonial era to Obama's America Jacqueline Jones
• Command and control: nuclear weapons, the Damascus accident and the illusion of safety Eric Schlosser

2013

• Embers of war: the fall of an empire the making of America's Vietnam Fredrik Logevall Winner
• The barbarous years: the peopling of British North America: the conflict of civilizations, 1600-1675 Bernard Bailyn
• Lincoln's code: the laws of war in American history John Fabian Witt

2012

• Malcolm X: a life of reinvention, Manning Marable

2011

• The fiery trial: Abraham Lincoln and American slavery Eric Foner

2010

• Lords of finance: the bankers who broke the world Liaquat Ahamed

2009

• The Hemingses of Monticello: an American family Annette Gordon-Reed

2008

• What hath God wrought Daniel Walker Howe

2007

• The race beat Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff

2006

• Polio: an American story David M. Oshinsky

2005

• Washington’s Crossing David Hackett Fischer

2004

• A nation under our feet: Black political struggles in the rural south from slavery to the great migration Steven Hahn

2003

• An army at dawn: the war in North Africa, 1942-1943 Rick Atkinson

2002

• The Metaphysical Club: a story of ideas in America Louis Menand

2001

• Founding brothers: the revolutionary generation Joseph J. Ellis

2000

• Freedom from fear: the American people in depression and war, 1929-1945 David M. Kennedy

1999

• Gotham: a history of New York City to 1898 Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace

1998

• Summer for the gods: the Scope’s Trial and America’s continuing debate over science and religion Edward J. Larson

1997

• Original meanings: politics and ideas in the making of the Constitution Jack N. Rakove

1996

• William Cooper’s town: power and persuasion on the frontier of the early American republic Alan Taylor

1995

• No ordinary time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt : the home front in World War II Doris Kearns Goodwin

1994

• No Award

1993

• The radicalism of the American Revolution Gordon S. Wood

1992

• The fate of liberty: Abraham Lincoln and civil liberties Mark E. Neely, Jr.

1991

• A midwife’s tale: the life of Martha Ballard, based on her diary 1785-1812 Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

1990

• In our image: America’s empire in the Philippines Stanley Karnow

1989

• Battle cry of freedom: the Civil War Era James M. McPherson
• Parting the waters: America in the King years 1954-63 Taylor Branch

1988

• The launching of American science 1846-1876 Robert Bruce

1987

• Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the revolution Bernard Bailyn

1986

• The heavens and the earth: a political history of the Space Age Walter A. McDougall

1985

• Prophets of regulation Thomas K. McCraw

1984

• No Award

1983

• The transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 Rhys L. Isaac

1982

• Mary Chesnut’s Civil War edited by C. Vann Woodward

1981

• American education: the national experience, 1783-1876 Lawrence A. Cremin

1980

• Been in the storm so long Leon F. Litwack

1979

• The Dred Scott case Don E. Fehrenbacher

1978

• The visible hand: the managerial revolution in American business Alfred D. Chandler Jr.

1977

• The impending crisis David M. Potter (a posthumous publication) manuscript finished Don E. Fehrenbacher

1976

• Lamy of Santa Fe Paul Horgan

1975

• Jefferson and his time, Vols. I-V Dumas Malone

1974

• The Americans: the democratic experience Daniel J. Boorstein

1973

• People of paradox: an inquiry concerning the origins of American civilization Michael Kammen

1972

• Neither black nor white Carl N. Degler

1971

• Roosevelt, the soldier of freedom James MacGregor Burns

1970

• Present at the creation: my years in the State Department Dean Acheson

1969

• Origins of the Fifth Amendment Leonard W. Levy

1968

• The ideological origins of the American Revolution Bernard Bailyn

1967

• Exploration and empire: the explorer and the scientist in the winning of the American West William H. Goetzmann

1966

• Life of the mind in America Perry Miller

1965

• The Greenback era Irwin Unger

1964

• Puritan village: the formation of a New England town Sumner Chilton Powell

1963

• Washington village and capital, 1800-1878 Constance McLaughlin Green

1962

• The triumphant empire, thunder-clouds in the West Lawrence H. Gibson

1961

• Between war and peace: the Potsdam Conference Herbert Feis

1960

• In the days of McKinley Margaret Leech

1959

• The Republican era: 1869-1901 Leonard D. White with the assistance of Jean Schneider

1958

• Banks and politics in America Bray Hammond

1957

• Russia leaves the war: Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920 George F. Kennan

1956

• Age of reform Richard Hofstadter

1955

• Great River: the Rio Grande in North American history Paul Horgan

1954

• A stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton

1953

• The era of good feelings George Dangerfield

1952

• The uprooted Oscar Handlin

1951

• The old Northwest Pioneer period 1815-1840 R. Carlyle Buley

1950

• Art and life in America Oliver W. Larkin

1949

• The disruption of American democracy Roy Franklin Nichols

1948

• Across the wide Missouri Bernard DeVoto

1947

• Scientists against time James Phinney Baxter III

1946

• The age of Jackson Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

1945

• Unfinished business Stephen Bonsal

1944

• The growth of American thought Merle Curti

1943

• Paul Revere and the world he lived in Esther Forbes

1942

• Reveille in Washington Margaret Leech

1941

• The Atlantic migration, 1607-1860 Marcus Lee Hansen

1940

• Abraham Lincoln: the war years Carl Sandburg

1939

• A history of American magazines Frank Luther Mott

1938

• The road to reunion, 1856-1900 Paul Herman Buck

1937

• The flowering of New England Van Wyck Brooks

1936

• The constitutional history of the United States Andrew C. McLaughlin

1935

• The colonial period of American history Charles McLean Andrews

1934

• The people’s choice Herbert Agar

1933

• The significance of sections in American history Frederick J. Turner

1932

• My experiences in the World War John J. Pershing

1931

• The coming of the war: 1914 Bernadotte E. Schmitt

1930

• The War of Independence Claude H. Van Tyne

1929

• The organization and administration of the Union Army, 1861-1865 Fred Albert Shannon

1928

• Main currents in American thought (2 volumes) Vernon Louis Parrington

1927

• Pickney’s Treaty Samuel Flagg Bemis

1926

• The history of the United States Edward Canning

1925

• A history of the American frontier Frederic L. Paxson

1924

• The American Revolution - a constitutional interpretation Charles Howard McIlwain

1923

• The Supreme Court in United States history Charles Warren

1922

• The founding of New England James Truslow Adams

1921

• The victory at sea William Sowden Sims in collaboration with Burton J. Hendrick

1920

• The war with Mexico (2 volumes) Justin H. Smith

1919

• No Award

1918

• A history of the Civil War, 1861-1865 James Ford Rhodes

1917

• With Americans of past and present days His Excellency J.J. Jusserand, Ambassador of France to the United States