The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, established in 1976,The National Book Critics Circle Journal 2:1, Spring 1976 , NBCC. Retrieved February 2, 2012. is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English." Awards are presented annually to books published in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir/Autobiography, Biography, and Criticism.
Books previously published in English are not eligible, such as re-issues and paperback editions. They do consider "translations, short story and essay collections, self published books, and any titles that fall under the general categories."
The judges are the volunteer directors of the NBCC who are 24 members serving rotating three-year terms, with eight elected annually by the voting members, namely "professional book review editors and book reviewers." Winners of the awards are announced each year at the NBCC awards ceremony in conjunction with the yearly membership meeting, which takes place in March.
Recipients +National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction winners and finalistsYearAuthorTitleResult1975Edith Wharton: A BiographyWinner1976WinnerFinalistRoots with Kenneth LiboWorld of Our FathersSimple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality1977Samuel JohnsonWinnerDispatchesFinalistComing Into the Country1978Facts of LifeWinnerInventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of IndependenceFinalistIn Search of History: A Personal AdventureInjustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and RevoltLying: Moral Choice in Public and Private LifeMax Perkins: Editor of GeniusNew York JewSeeing Through Clothes1979Munich: The Price of PeaceWinnerFinalistAfrican Calliope: A Journey to the SudanGodel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Brain1980Walter Lippmann and the American CenturyWinnerAlice James: A BiographyFinalistChina MenChristianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the 14th CenturyWalt Whitman: A Life1981WinnerNational DefenseFinalistNo Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920Forms of Talk1982WinnerFinalistStolen LightningBronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood1983WinnerChildren of WarFinalistDistant Water: The Fate of the North Atlantic FishermanPresent History: On Nuclear War, Detente and OtherRevolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World1984Weapons and HopeWinnerFinalistBrothers and KeepersSon of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Big Horn 1985Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American FamiliesWinnerHouseFinalistDistant Neighbors: The Portrait of the Mexicans1986Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern LandscapeWinnerVoyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution FinalistBird of Life, Bird of Death: A Naturalist’s Journey Through a Land of Political TurmoilWar Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific WarCadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water1987WinnerAnd the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS EpidemicFinalistDemocracy Is in the StreetsTime's Arrow, Time's Cycle1988Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63WinnerBattle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War EraFinalistEuropeans Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-18771989WinnerAmong SchoolchildrenFinalistFear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle ClassA Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-19221990WinnerCity of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los AngelesFinalistSambaDisappearing Through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the 20th Century1991Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American WomenWinnerWhich Side Are You on? Trying to Be for Labor When It’s Flat on Its BackFinalistPraying for SheetrockSavage Inequalities: Children in America’s SchoolsLonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe1992Young Men and FireWinnerBreaking the Maya CodeFinalistHome Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar AmericaDeath Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil1993WinnerWhoredom in Kimmage: Irish Women Coming of AgeFinalistGenie: An Abused Child’s Flight From SilenceLenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire1994Winner and Jill AbramsonStrange Justice: The Selling of Clarence ThomasFinalistMy Own Country: A Doctor's Story How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter1995WinnerFinalistIn These Girls, Hope Is a MuscleAll God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of ViolenceMr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder1996Bad Land: An American RomanceWinnerGreat BooksFinalistHitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the HolocaustAshes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris1997WinnerInto Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest DisasterFinalistAmerican Scripture: Making the Declaration of IndependenceHow the Mind Works1998We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our FamiliesWinnerKing Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial AfricaFinalistMany Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America1999Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of BehaviorWinnerFive Thousand Days Like This One: An American Family HistoryFinalistEmbracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War III Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory2000Newjack: Guarding Sing SingWinnerCrucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766FinalistWay Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold WarBetrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health2001Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on PaperWinnerFinalistNeighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, PolandSeabiscuit: An American Legend2002WinnerWar Is a Force That Gives Us MeaningFinalistAmerican Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade CenterBrown: The Last Discovery of AmericaEdison’s Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life2003Sons of MississippiWinnerFinalistGulagRandom Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of AgeRising Up and Rising Down2004WinnerArc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz AgeFinalistBlue BloodBlood Done Sign My Name: A True Story2005Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear DisasterWinnerFinalistEating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the WildHuman Cargo: A Journey Among RefugeesNight Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War2006Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American RevolutionWinnerFinalist2007Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the PresentWinnerAmerican TranscendentalismFinalistLegacy of Ashes: A History of the CIAWhat Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815–18482008WinnerFrom Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776FinalistThis Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil WarWhite Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement2009WinnerFordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle CityFinalistImperialStrength in What Remains2010WinnerApollo’s Angels: A History of BalletFinalistEmpire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in AmericanNothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea2011Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary WorldWinnerFinalistPulphead: EssaysTo End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-19182012Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for IdentityWinnerBehind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai UndercityFinalistPrivate Empire: ExxonMobil and American PowerSpillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human PandemicWhy Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story2013Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged HospitalWinnerGoing Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of BeliefFinalistThank You for Your Service and Shelley MurphyWhitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice2014Winner with Arthur Goldhammer (trans.)Capital in the Twenty-First CenturyFinalistDeep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free and Petra Couvee2015Dreamland: The True Story of America’s Opiate EpidemicWinnerGhettoside: A True Story of Murder in AmericaFinalistGive Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in AmericaSPQR: A History of Ancient RomeWhat the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing2016Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American CityWinnerDark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical RightFinalistNothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of WarStamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in AmericaWriting to Save a Life: The Louis Till File2017WinnerFinalistBorder: A Journey to the Edge of EuropeGulf: The Making of An American Sea2018Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and PakistanWinnerGod Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star StateFinalist and Jonathan HaidtWe the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights2019Say Nothing: The True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern IrelandWinnerManual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the FutureFinalistNo Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill UsOut of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men's Lives2020Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British EmpireWinnerCaste: The Origins of Our DiscontentFinalistShakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and FutureShe Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs2021How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across AmericaWinnerEmpire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler DynastyFinalistOrwell’s Roses2022WinnerBad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the BorderlandsFinalistVirology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in BetweenFen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate CrisisAn Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us2023We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in AmericaWinnerBottoms Up and the Devil LaughsFinalistWho Gets Believed? When the Truth Isn’t EnoughOrdinary Notes2024Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of SpaceWinnerFinalistRelinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood We’re Alone 2025Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAIWinnerAmerica, América: A New History of the New WorldFinalistDaughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated TwinsKing of Kings: The Iranian Revolution, a Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson
See also Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award John Leonard Prize National Book Critics Circle Awards National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir and Autobiography National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing
References
External links
Official website