Together, over 700 book reviewers chose the National Book Critics Circle Awards, which are offered in five categories: fiction, general nonfiction, biography/autobiography, poetry, and criticism. Also awarded each year are the Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters and the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, which is given by the NBCC to one of its members.

2007

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet Washington

Publisher Comments
Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge... (read more)

2006

Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution by Simon Schama

Synopsis
Tens of thousands of blacks in America at the start of the Revolutionary War escaped from farms, plantations, and cities to reach the British who offered the promise of emancipation in return for military service. Schama follows their odyssey through the war and into inhospitable Nova Scotia where thousands were betrayed. (read more)

2005

Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich

Review
"A chorus of fatalism, stoic bravery and black, black humor is sounded in this haunting oral history of the 1986 nuclear reactor catastrophe in what is now northeastern Ukraine." Publishers Weekly (read more)

2004

The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Synopsis
The Reformation and Counter-Reformation represented the greatest upheaval in Western society since the collapse of the Roman Empire. In this masterful history, MacCulloch conveys the drama, complexity, and continuing relevance of these events. (read more)

2003

Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy by Paul Hendrickson

Review
“Written with ethereal elegance, Sons of Mississippi explores the pathos of racism in the American South with a rare lyrical intensity. Paul Hendrickson, a truly gifted journalist, journeyed into our Civil Rights past and found spoonfuls of redemption. A truly brilliant, evocative mediation which enlightens both the mind and the soul.” Douglas Brinkley, Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and Professor of History at the University of New Orleans (read more)

2002

"A Problem from Hell" by Samantha Power

Review
"Samantha Power has written one of those rare books that is truly as important as its subject. With great narrative verve, and a sober and subtle intelligence, she carries us deep behind the scenes of history-in-the-making to map the gray zones of diplomatic politics where the rhetoric of best intentions founds against inertia and inaction." Philip Gourevitch (read more)

2001

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper by Nicholson Baker

Review
"There�s no mistaking the passion and intelligence he brings to his task or the fiery zest with which he relays his most damning anecdotes." Chicago Tribune (read more)

2000

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover

Review
"Instead of emerging from Sing Sing with a reform agenda, Conover ended his ordeal with this fascinating look at how prison brutalizes men and women on both sides of the bars." Entertainment Weekly (read more)

1999 Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Search for the Origins of Behavior by Jonathan Weiner