Finalist: This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War , by Drew Gilpin Faust (Alfred A. Knopf )
A deeply researched, gracefully written examination of how a divided nation struggled to comprehend the meaning and practical consequences of unprecedented human carnage.
Winners
Prize Winner in History in 2009:
Annette Gordon-Reed
A painstaking exploration of a sprawling multi-generation slave family that casts provocative new light on the relationship between Sally Hemings and her master, Thomas Jefferson.
History
Finalists
Nominated as finalists in History in 2009:
G. Calvin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot
An elegantly written account of a brief period in American history that left a profoundly altered national landscape.
The Jury
The Jury
Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman
Dwight Stanford Professor of American Foreign Relations
Elliott West
professor of history
Pauline Maier(chair )
William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of American History
Winners in History
2009 Prize Winners
Patrick Farrell
For his provocative, impeccably composed images of despair after Hurricane Ike and other lethal storms caused a humanitarian disaster in Haiti.
W.S. Merwin
A collection of luminous, often tender poems that focus on the profound power of memory.
Las Vegas Sun, and notably the courageous reporting by Alexandra Berzon
For the exposure of the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip amid lax enforcement of regulations, leading to changes in policy and improved safety conditions.
Staff
For its swift and sweeping coverage of a sex scandal that resulted in the resignation of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, breaking the story on its Web site and then developing it with authoritative, rapid-fire reports.