The Pulitzer Prize has been awarded by Columbia University since 1917. The awards are given on the recommendations of a board of jurors for Journalism, Letters, Music and Drama. The awards for Letters include Fiction, Poetry, Biography or Autobiography, and History. Listed here are the winners in the Nonfiction category.

2008

The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander

Publisher Comments
The Years of Extermination, the completion of Saul Friedländer's major historical opus on Nazi Germany and the Jews, explores the convergence of the various aspects of this most systematic and sustained of modern genocides. In this unparalleled work — based on a vast array of documents and an overwhelming choir of voices from diaries, letters, and memoirs — the history of the Holocaust has found its definitive representation. (read more)

2007

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

Review
"A towering achievement. One of the best and more important books of recent years. Lawrence Wright has dug deep into and written well a story every American should know. A masterful combination of reporting and writing." Dan Rather (read more)

2006

Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins

Synopsis
This unforgettable account of the unraveling of the British colonial empire in Kenya is a major work of history detailing the prisons, work camps, and terror that the British imposed on millions just after World War II. It has chilling parallels to America's own imperial project. (read more)

2005

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll

Review
"[O]bjective — and terrific....Coll...has given us what is certainly the finest historical narrative so far on the origins of Al Qaeda....Ghost Wars provides fresh details and helps explain the motivations behind many crucial decisions." James Risen, The New York Times (read more)

2004

Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum

Review
"An important book....It is fervently to be hoped that people will read Anne Applebaum's excellent, tautly written, and very damning history." New York Times Book Review (read more)

2003

A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power

Review
"The emotional force of Power's argument is carried by moving, sometimes almost unbearable stories of the victims and survivors of such brutality....This is a well-researched and powerful study that is both a history and a call to action." Publishers Weekly (read more)

2002

Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter

Review
"[A] vivid, admirably nuanced, and wide-ranging history of the city that became ground zero in the Civil Rights struggle....A dense, detailed, and insightful history." Kirkus Reviews (read more)

2001 Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix