Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Pulitzer Prize, 67 Books

The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category.

Rough head-count of people who shape the result each year

5 subject-matter jurors who screen the entries and forward three titles.

19 Board members who cast the decisive votes.
So, a maximum of 24 people take part in the decision path for the Biography / Autobiography prize each cycle.

Names are not secret, just easy to overlook.

Jury names stay under wraps until winners are announced, then they’re displayed on each category’s web page (and occasionally turn up in press coverage or book-specific Wikipedia entries, as in the 2011 example above).

Board membership is public all year and archived from one cycle to the next.

This list is a yearly book award, and was added to this site over 12 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
7047 The Making of the President, 1960 Theodore White 1961 American English
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
9749 Anti-intellectualism in American Life Richard Hofstadter 1963 American English
11137 O Strange New World Howard Mumford Jones 1964 American English
11137 Wandering Through Winter Edwin Way Teale 1965 American English
11137 The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture David Brion Davis 1966 American English
3807 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
11137 So Human an Animal René Dubos 1968 French English
3072 The Armies of the Night Norman Mailer 1968 American English
5286 Gandhi's Truth Erik H. Erikson 1969 American English
11137 The Rising Sun John Toland 1970 American English
9545 Stilwell and the American Experience in China Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1971 American English
9754 Fire in the Lake Frances FitzGerald 1972 American English
2841 Children of Crisis Robert Coles 1967 American English
9753 The Denial of Death Ernest Becker 1973 American English
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
11137 Why Survive? Being Old in America Robert Neil Butler 1975 American English
8559 Beautiful Swimmers William Warner 1976 American English
9754 The Dragons of Eden Carl Sagan 1977 American English
8406 On Human Nature E. O. Wilson 1978 American English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
11137 Fin-de-Siècle Vienna Carl E. Schorske 1980 American English
1893 The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder 1981 American English
11137 Is There No Place On Earth For Me? Susan Sheehan 1982 American English
7903 The Social Transformation of American Medicine Paul Starr 1982 American English
2484 The Good War Studs Terkel 1984 American English
6484 Common Ground J. Anthony Lukas 1985 American English
7903 Move Your Shadow Joseph Lelyveld 1986 American English
7903 Arab and Jew David K. Shipler 1986 American English
1750 The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes 1986 American English
4416 A Bright Shining Lie Neil Sheehan 1988 American English
11137 And Their Children After Them Dale Maharidge, Michael Williamson 1989 American English
5484 The Ants E. O. Wilson, Bert Hölldobler 1990 American English
3206 The Prize Daniel Yergin 1991 American English
6882 Lincoln at Gettysburg Garry Wills 1992 American English
3821 Lenin's Tomb David Remnick 1993 American English
5800 The Beak of the Finch Jonathan Weiner 1994 American English
6882 The Haunted Land Tina Rosenberg 1995 American English
11137 Ashes to Ashes Richard Kluger 1996 American English
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
9754 Annals of the Former World John McPhee 1998 American English
11137 Embracing Defeat John W. Dower 1999 American English
11137 Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan Herbert P. Bix 2000 American English
9754 Carry Me Home Diane McWhorter 2001 American English
11137 A Problem from Hell Samantha Power 2002 American English
4613 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
8565 Ghost Wars Steve Coll 2004 American English
11137 Imperial Reckoning Caroline Elkins 2005 British English
1884 The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright 2006 American English
9754 The Years of Extermination Saul Friedlander 2007 Israeli English
8565 Slavery by Another Name Douglas A. Blackmon 2008 American English
9754 The Dead Hand David Hoffman 2009 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
4418 The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt 2011 American English
11137 Devil in the Grove Gilbert King 2012 American English
11137 Toms River Dan Fagin 2013 American English
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
11137 Black Flags Joby Warrick 2015 American English
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
7903 Locking Up Our Own James Forman 2017 American English
5092 Amity and Prosperity Eliza Griswold 2018 American English
11137 The End of the Myth Greg Grandin 2019 American English
11137 The Undying Anne Boyer 2019 American English
11137 Wilmington's Lie David Zucchino 2020 American English
6654 Invisible Child Andrea Elliott 2021 American English
11137 His Name Is George Floyd Robert Samuels, Toluse Olorunnipa 2022 American English
8565 A Day In The Life Of Abed Salama Nathan Thrall 2023 Unknown English