Best Books of the Year
Menu

Pulitzer Prizes · award year

Pulitzer Prize 2019

The 2019 Pulitzer Prize went to The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart (Biography or Autobiography) and Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight (History). 6 books were finalists across 2 categories.

Winners

Biography or Autobiography

  1. The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewartsource (opens in a new tab)

History

  1. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blightsource (opens in a new tab)

Finalists

Biography or Autobiography

  1. Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris by Caroline Webersource (opens in a new tab)
  2. The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam by Max Bootsource (opens in a new tab)

History

  1. American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition by W. Fitzhugh Brundagesource (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)

The most recommended books of 2019

Shares the most books with