Pulitzer Prize for History · 2025 · Winner
Pulitzer Prize for History
2025 Winner
2025 Shortlist & Longlist
Shortlist
Complete History
2020s
- 2025Native Nations: A Millennium in North America — Kathleen DuVal
- 2024No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era — Jacqueline Jones
- 2023Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power — Jefferson Cowie
- 2022Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America — Nicole Eustace
- 2021Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America — Marcia Chatelain
- 2020Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America — W. Caleb McDaniel
2010s
- 2019Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom — David W. Blight
- 2018The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea — Jack E. Davis
- 2017Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy — Heather Ann Thompson
- 2016Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America — T.J. Stiles
- 2015Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People — Elizabeth Fenn
- 2014The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 — Alan Taylor
- 2013Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam — Fredrik Logevall
- 2012Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention — Manning Marable
- 2011The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery — Eric Foner
- 2010Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World — Liaquat Ahamed
About the Pulitzer Prize for History
The Pulitzer Prize for History is awarded annually for a distinguished and appropriately documented book on the history of the United States. It is one of the oldest Pulitzer categories, having been awarded since 1917, and is administered by Columbia University. The prize carries a cash award of $15,000 and a certificate. Among the most storied of American literary prizes, it has recognized landmark works by historians including Bernard Bailyn, David McCullough, Alan Taylor, and Annette Gordon-Reed. The prize is specifically for books about American history, distinguishing it from more general history prizes. It is announced each spring following deliberation by a jury of distinguished historians and the Pulitzer Board. The award was not given in 1919, 1984, and 1994. In some years — notably 1989 and 2022 — two prizes have been awarded. Finalists, typically two, are announced alongside the winner. The prize has increasingly recognized works that expand the definition of American history to include previously marginalized voices and perspectives, as seen in recent winners on Indigenous history, the history of slavery, and the Black freedom struggle.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The prize is for distinguished, appropriately documented books on the history of the United States, published during the preceding calendar year by an American author.
- Winners receive $15,000 and a certificate. Finalists receive certificates.
- Yes. In 1989 and 2022, two prizes were awarded. In 2025, two prizes were also given.
- The prize is specifically for American authors writing on American history. Non-American authors are not eligible.
- Five historians have won twice: Margaret Leech, Bernard Bailyn, Paul Horgan, Alan Taylor, and Don E. Fehrenbacher.
- Winners are announced each spring, typically in May.
- No. The prize covers the full sweep of American history, from the colonial period to the present, including social, political, cultural, and military history.