---
title: Pulitzer Prize non-fiction
date: "2006-03-30T12:00:00Z"
categories:
  - top-10-lists
wp_id: 383
---

These are the Pulitzer prize winning non-fiction books. I've read only two: Godel, Escher, Bach and Guns, Germs and Steel. These were the very best books I have EVER read. If that's any indication to go by, I want to finish this whole list.

- 1962: [The Making of the President, 1960 by Theodore H White](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568491433/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1963: [The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034538623X/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1964: [Anti-intellectualism in America by Richard Hofstadter](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394703170/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1965: [O Strange New World by Howard M Jones](http://www.google.com/search?q=o+strange+new+world+howard+m+jones)
- 1966: [Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0396079598/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1967: [The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture by David Brion Davis](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195056396/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1968: [Rousseau & Revolution Story of CIV Volume 10 by Will Durant](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671012150/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1969: [Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452272793/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1970: [Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence by Erik H Erikson](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393310345/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1971: [The Rising Sun by John Toland](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812968581/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1972: [Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 by Barbara W. Tuchman](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802138527/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1973: [Fire in the Lake by Frances Fitzgerald](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316284238/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1974: [The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684832402/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1975: [Pilgrim At Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060953020/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1976: [Why Survive?: Being Old in America by Robert N Butler](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006131997X/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1977: [Beautiful Swimmers by William W Warner](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316923354/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1978: [Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345346297/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1979: [On Human Nature by Edward Osborne Wilson](http://www.google.com/search?q=On+Human+Nature+by+Edward+Osborne+Wilson)
- 1980: [Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465026567/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1981: [Fin-de-siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture by Carl Schorske](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394744780/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1982: [The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316491977/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1983: [Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394713788/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1984: [The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465079350/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1985: [The Good War: An Oral History of World War II by Studs Terkel](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1565843436/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1986: [Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394746163/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1987: [Arab and Jew by David K Shipler](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142002291/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1988: [The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684813785/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1989: [A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679724141/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1990: [And Their Children After Them by Michael Williamson](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1583226575/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1991: [Ants by Bert Holldobler](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674040759/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1992: [Prize by Daniel Yergin](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671799320/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1993: [Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0783888570/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1994: [Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679751254/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1995: [The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067973337X/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1996: [The Haunted Land by Tina Rosenberg](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679744991/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1997: [Ashes to Ashes by Richard Kluger](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375700366/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1998: [Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393317552/?tag=sanand-20)
- 1999: [The Annals of the Former World by John McPhee](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374518734/?tag=sanand-20)
- 2000: [Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393320278/?tag=sanand-20)
- 2001: [Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060931302/?tag=sanand-20)
- 2002: [Carry Me Home by Diane McWhorter](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000667EP/?tag=sanand-20)
- 2003: [A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060541644/?tag=sanand-20)
- 2004: [Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400034094/?tag=sanand-20)
- 2005: [Ghost Wars by Steve Coll](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143034669/?tag=sanand-20)

---

## Comments

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- **Jayant** _30 Mar 2006 2:12 pm_:
  Thanks a ton for the list. Pulitzer books in non-fiction are just gems!
- **Arun** _31 Mar 2006 8:08 am_:
  Ouch, haven't read even one of these. And i thought i read more non-fiction than most!!!
- **S Anand** _31 Mar 2006 9:45 am_:
  Next on my reading list are Ants (don't be fooled: though it's really about ants, it's apparantly a fascinating read), Annals of the Former World (which I developed a liking for since I read A Short History of Everything), and Carl Sagan's Dragons of Eden.
- **Sanchaari** _31 Mar 2006 2:14 pm_:
  Hi Anand, I liked your Bolg style, can I take some ideas from here? Which blogging site you are using?
- **S Anand** _31 Mar 2006 4:47 pm_:
  Feel free to pull ideas. But I don't use any blogging software. I write entries in Excel, and my Perl program converts that to HTML, which I then I FTP. Not much help, I'm afraid...

<!-- wp-comments-end -->