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The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author, published during the preceding calendar year, that is not eligible for consideration in another category.

Finalists have been announced from 1980, ordinarily two others beside the winner.^[1]

Winners

In its first 52 years to 2013, the Nonfiction Pulitzer was awarded 55 times; two prizes were given in 1969, 1973, and 1986. Two people won the prize as co-authors in 1968, 1990, and 1991.^[1]Barbara Tuchman and E.O. Wilson have won two Nonfiction prizes each.

1960s

• 
  1962: The Making of the President, 1960 by Theodore White
  


• 
  1963: The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
  


• 
  1964: Anti-intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
  


• 
  1965: O Strange New World by Howard Mumford Jones
  


• 
  1966: Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale
  


• 
  1967: The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture by David Brion Davis
  


• 
  1968: Rousseau and Revolution, vol. 10 of The Story of Civilization, by Will and Ariel Durant
  


• 
  1969: So Human an Animal by René Jules Dubos
  


• 
  1969: The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer
  

1970s

• 
  1970: Gandhi's Truth by Erik H. Erikson
  


• 
  1971: The Rising Sun by John Toland
  


• 
  1972: Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45 by Barbara W. Tuchman
  


• 
  1973: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald
  


• 
  1973: Children of Crisis, vols. 2 and 3, by Robert Coles
  


• 
  1974: The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
  


• 
  1975: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
  


• 
  1976: Why Survive? Being Old In America by Robert Neil Butler
  


• 
  1977: Beautiful Swimmers by William W. Warner
  


• 
  1978: The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
  


• 
  1979: On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson
  

1980s

The finalists are indented, ordinarily two each year.

• 
  1980: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
  
  
  
  • 
    The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar
    
  
  
  • 
    The Medusa and the Snail by Lewis Thomas
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1981: Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture by Carl E. Schorske
  
  
  
  • 
    China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston
    
  
  
  • 
    Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War by William Manchester
    
  
  
  • 
    Southerners: A Journalist's Odyssey by Marshall Frady
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1982: The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
  
  
  
  • 
    Basin and Range by John McPhee
    
  
  
  • 
    Mrs. Harris: The Death of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor by Diana Trilling
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1983: Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan
  
  
  
  • 
    The Fate of the Earth by Jonathan Schell
    
  
  
  • 
    Terrorists and Novelists by Diane Johnson
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1984: The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr
  
  
  
  • 
    Conversations With the Enemy by Winston Groom and Duncan Spencer
  
  
  • 
    Wild Justice by Susan Jacoby
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1985: The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two by Studs Terkel
  
  
  
  • 
    Endless Enemies by Jonathan Kwitny
    
  
  
  • 
    Dawn to the West by Donald Keene
  
  
  
  


• 
  1986 (two winners): Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families by J. Anthony Lukas
  


• 
  Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White by Joseph Lelyveld
  
  • 
    Habits and the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life by Robert Neelly Bellah
    
  
  


• 
  1987: Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler
  
  
  
  • 
    Rising from the Plains by John McPhee
    
  
  
  • 
    Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir by Cyra McFadden
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1988: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
  
  
  
  • 
    Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick
    
  
  
  • 
    Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society by Daniel Callahan
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1989: A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
  
  
  
  • 
    The Last Farmer by Howard Kohn
  
  
  • 
    Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris
    
  
  
  
  

1990s

• 
  1990: And Their Children After Them by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson
  
  
  
  • 
    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould
    
  
  
  • 
    A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East 1914-1922 by David Fromkin
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1991: The Ants by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson
  
  
  
  • 
    Looking for a Ship by John McPhee
    
  
  
  • 
    River of Traps: A Village Life by William duBuys and Alex Harris
  
  
  
  


• 
  1992: The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin
  
  
  
  • 
    Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics by Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary D. Edsall
  
  
  • 
    Broken Vessels by Andre Dubus
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1993: Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills
  
  
  
  • 
    Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father by Richard Rodriguez
    
  
  
  • 
    Where the Buffalo Roam by Anne Matthews
    
  
  
  • 
    A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War by Susan Griffin
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1994: Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick
  
  
  
  • 
    The Cultivation of Hatred: The Bourgeois Experience, Victoria to Freud by Peter Gay
    
  
  
  • 
    The End of the Twentieth Century: And the End of the Modern Age by John Lukacs
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1995: The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner
  
  
  
  • 
    How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter by Sherwin B. Nuland
    
  
  
  • 
    Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1996: The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism by Tina Rosenberg
  
  
  
  • 
    Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler
    
  
  
  • 
    Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and The Meanings of Life by Daniel C. Dennett
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1997: Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris by Richard Kluger
  
  
  
  • 
    Fame and Folly by Cynthia Ozick
    
  
  
  • 
    The Inheritance: How Three Families and America Moved from Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond by Samuel G. Freedman
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1998: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
  
  
  
  • 
    How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
    
  
  
  • 
    Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  1999: Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
  
  
  
  • 
    The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do by Judith Rich Harris
    
  
  
  • 
    Crime and Punishment in America by Elliott Currie
  
  
  
  

2000s

• 
  2000: Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower
  
  
  
  • 
    The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
    
  
  
  • 
    Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2001: Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix
  
  
  
  • 
    A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
    
  
  
  • 
    Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2002: Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter
  
  
  
  • 
    The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
    
  
  
  • 
    War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals by David Halberstam
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2003: "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
  
  
  
  • 
    The Anthropology of Turquoise: Meditations on Landscape, Art, and Spirit by Ellen Meloy
    
  
  
  • 
    The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2004: Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum
  
  
  
  • 
    The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military by Dana Priest
    
  
  
  • 
    Rembrandt's Jews by Steven Nadler
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2005: Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll
  
  
  
  • 
    The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea
    
  
  
  • 
    Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2006: Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins
  
  
  
  • 
    The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer
    
  
  
  • 
    Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2007: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
  
  
  
  • 
    Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley
    
  
  
  • 
    Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2008: The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945 by Saul Friedlander
  
  
  
  • 
    The Cigarette Century by Allan M. Brandt
    
  
  
  • 
    The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2009: Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
  
  
  
  • 
    The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe by William I. Hitchcock
    
  
  
  • 
    Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur L. Herman
    
  
  
  
  

2010s

• 
  2010: The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman
  
  
  
  • 
    The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
    
  
  
  • 
    How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities by John Cassidy
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2011: Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
  
  
  
  • 
    The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas G. Carr
    
  
  
  • 
    Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2012: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
  
  
  
  • 
    One Hundred Names For Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing by Diane Ackerman
    
  
  
  • 
    Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men by Mara Hvistendahl
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2013: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
  
  
  
  • 
    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
    
  
  
  • 
    The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2014: Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin
  
  
  
  • 
    The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass
  
  
  • 
    The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War by Fred Kaplan
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2015: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert^[2]
  
  
  
  • 
    No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal
    
  
  
  • 
    Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2016: Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick^[3]
  
  
  
  • 
    Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    
  
  
  • 
    If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran by Carla Power
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2017: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond^[4]
  
  
  • 
    In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvan and Caren Zucker
    
  
  
  • 
    The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery by Micki McElya
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  2018: Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
  
  
  
  • 
    The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us by Richard O. Prum
    
  
  
  • 
    Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen
    
  
  
  
  

Repeat winners

Two people have won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction twice.

• 
  Barbara Tuchman, 1963 for The Guns of August and 1972 for Stilwell and the American Experience in China
  


• 
  E. O. Wilson, 1979 for On Human Nature and 1991 for Ants, the latter with co-author Bert Hölldobler

See also

• Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography


• Pulitzer Prize for History

References

External links

• 
  Media related to Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners at Wikimedia Commons