Los Angeles Times Book Prize – History

1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerEmbracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War IIJohn W. DowerWinner of the Pulitzer Prize, the 1999 National Book Award for Nonfiction, finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, Embracing Defeat is John W. Dower's brilliant examination of Japan in the immediate, shattering afterma...Amazon1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistEmpire Express: Building the 1st Transcontinental RailroadDavid Haward BainAmazonFreedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945David M. KennedyAmazonThe First World WarJohn KeeganAmazonThe Holocaust in American LifePeter NovickAmazon

2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerRailroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern AmericaRichard WhiteDescribes the roll played by the transcontinental railroads in the making of modern America during the Gilded Age, discussing the economic panics caused by their debt and how their dependence on donations from the wealthy initiated new forms of corruption....Amazon2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History Shortlist1861: The Civil War AwakeningAdam GoodheartAmazonMolotov's Magic Lantern: Travels in Russian HistoryRachel PolonskyAmazonThe Anatomy of a Moment: Thirty-Five Minutes in History and ImaginationJavier Cercas, Anne McLeanAmazonTo End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918Adam HochschildAmazon

2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerAmerica's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the UnionFergus M. BordewichChronicles the 1850s appeals of Western territories to join the Union as slave or free states, profiling period balances in the Senate, Henry Clay's attempts at compromise, and the border crisis between New Mexico and Texas....Amazon2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistA Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of MexicoAmy S. GreenbergAmazonEmpire of Shadows: The Epic Story of YellowstoneGeorge BlackAmazonRoger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of LibertyJohn M. BarryAmazonRule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republ...

2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerThe Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914,Christopher ClarkOne of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History) The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is historian Christopher Clark’s riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World W...Amazon2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistFDR and the JewsRichard Breitman & Allan J. LichtmanAmazonThe Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of JournalismDoris Kearns GoodwinAmazonThe Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832Alan TaylorAmazonThe Searchers: The Making of an American LegendGlenn FrankelAmazon

2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerThe Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931Adam Tooze"A searing and highly original analysis of the First World War and its anguished aftermath. In the depths of the Great War, with millions dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. The heart of the financial sys...Amazon2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistFive Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World WarMark HarrisAmazonThe Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital RevolutionWalter IsaacsonAmazonThe Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ LondonJudith FlandersAmazonThirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp DavidLawrence Wri...

2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerKilling a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of IsraelDan EphronKilling a King relates parallel stories over the two years leading up to the assassination, as Rabin plotted political deals he hoped would lead to peace and Amir plotted murder....Amazon2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistDark Places of the Earth: The Voyage of the Slave Ship AntelopeJonathan M. BryantAmazonOnce in a Great City: A Detroit StoryDavid MaranissAmazonSPQR: A History of Ancient RomeMary BeardAmazonThis Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and ReasonMark MoleskyAmazon

2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerAn American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873Benjamin MadleyBetween 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supp...Amazon2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistBlood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its LegacyHeather Ann ThompsonAmazonSpain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939Adam HochschildAmazonWhere the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s Jewish Autonomous RegionMasha GessenAmazonWhite Trash: The 400-Year Untold...

2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerThe Death and Life of the Great LakesDan EganThe Great Lakes--Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior--hold 20 percent of the world's supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work, and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their...Amazon2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistHue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in VietnamMark BowdenAmazonLondon’s Triumph: Merchants, Adventurers, and Money in Shakespeare’s CityStephen AlfordAmazonThe Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated AmericaRichard RothsteinAmazonThe Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape AmericaFrances FitzGeraldAmazon

1990 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History WinnerThe Quest For El CidRichard FletcherRodrigo Díaz, the legendary warrior-knight of eleventh-century Castile known as El Cid, is still honored in Spain as a national hero for liberating the fatherland from the occupying Moors. Yet, as this book reveals, there are many contradictions between el...Amazon1990 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - History ShortlistA Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle EastDavid FromkinAmazonAwash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American PeopleJon ButlerAmazonItaly and its MonarchyDenis Mack SmithAmazonThe Search for Modern ChinaJonathan D. SpenceAmazon