Finalist: The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe , by William I. Hitchcock (Free Press )
A heavily documented exploration of the overlooked suffering of noncombatants in the victory over Nazi Germany, written with the dash of a novelist and the authority of a scholar.
Winners
Prize Winner in General Nonfiction in 2009:
Douglas A. Blackmon
A precise and eloquent work that examines a deliberate system of racial suppression and that rescues a multitude of atrocities from virtual obscurity.
General Nonfiction
Finalists
Nominated as finalists in General Nonfiction in 2009:
Arthur Herman
An authoritative, deeply researched book that achieves an extraordinary balance in weighing two mighty protagonists against each other.
The Jury
The Jury
David Shipler*
author and former correspondent
Michael Dirda(chair )*
writer and Book World columnist
Dava Sobel
author
Winners in General Nonfiction
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.