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Pulitzer Prize 2016

The 2016 Pulitzer Prize went to Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (Biography or Autobiography) and Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T.J. Stiles (History). 7 books were finalists across 2 categories.

Winners

Biography or Autobiography

  1. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegansource (opens in a new tab)

History

  1. Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T.J. Stilessource (opens in a new tab)

Finalists

Biography or Autobiography

  1. Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T.J. Stilessource (opens in a new tab)
  2. The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexandersource (opens in a new tab)

History

  1. Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War by Brian Matthew Jordansource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor by James M. Scottsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency by Annie Jacobsensource (opens in a new tab)

About the Pulitzer Prize

Winners and finalists from the pulitzer.org Biography and History category pages. The Biography category was named Biography or Autobiography through 2022; entries use the name in force that year. In 2016 the board moved Custer's Trials from Biography finalist to History winner; it appears in both, as pulitzer.org lists it.

Organization: Pulitzer Prizes. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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