ShelfEvidentNational Book Award for Nonfiction — Complete Winners List
76 years of winners · National Book Foundation · Since 1950 · ← Back to award page
| 2025 | Omar El Akkad | — | |
| 2024 | Jason De León | — | |
| 2023 | Ned Blackhawk | — | |
| 2022 | Imani Perry | Ecco | |
| 2021 | Tiya Miles | — | |
| 2020 | Les Payne | Liveright Publishing | |
| 2019 | Sarah M. Broom | Grove Press | |
| 2018 | Jeffrey C. Stewart | Oxford University Press | |
| 2017 | Masha Gessen | Riverhead Books | |
| 2016 | Ibram X. Kendi | Nation Books | |
| 2015 | Ta-Nehisi Coates | Spiegel & Grau | |
| 2014 | Evan Osnos | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |
| 2013 | George Packer | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |
| 2012 | Katherine Boo | Random House | |
| 2011 | Stephen Greenblatt | W. W. Norton & Company | |
| 2010 | Patti Smith | Ecco | |
| 2009 | T.J. Stiles | Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 2008 | Annette Gordon-Reed | — | |
| 2007 | Tim Weiner | — | |
| 2006 | Timothy Egan | — | |
| 2005 | Joan Didion | — | |
| 2004 | Kevin Boyle | — | |
| 2003 | Carlos Eire | — | |
| 2002 | Robert A. Caro | — | |
| 2001 | Andrew Solomon | — | |
| 2000 | Nathaniel Philbrick | — | |
| 1999 | John W. Dower | — | |
| 1998 | Edward Ball | — | |
| 1997 | Joseph J. Ellis | — | |
| 1996 | James P. Carroll | — | |
| 1995 | Tina Rosenberg | — | |
| 1994 | Sherwin B. Nuland | — | |
| 1993 | Gore Vidal | — | |
| 1992 | Paul Monette | — | |
| 1991 | Orlando Patterson | — | |
| 1990 | Ron Chernow | — | |
| 1989 | Thomas L. Friedman | — | |
| 1988 | Neil Sheehan | — | |
| 1987 | Richard Rhodes | — | |
| 1986 | Barry Lopez | — | |
| 1985 | J. Anthony Lukas | — | |
| 1984 | Robert V. Remini | — | |
| 1983 | Fox Butterfield | — | |
| 1982 | Tracy Kidder | — | |
| 1981 | Maxine Hong Kingston | — | |
| 1980 | Tom Wolfe | — | |
| 1979 | Peter Matthiessen | — | |
| 1978 | W. Jackson Bate | — | |
| 1977 | W. A. Swanberg | — | |
| 1976 | Paul Fussell | — | |
| 1975 | Roger Shattuck | — | |
| 1974 | Pauline Kael | — | |
| 1973 | Arthur M. Wilson | — | |
| 1972 | Charles Rosen | — | |
| 1971 | Francis Steegmuller | — | |
| 1970 | Lillian Hellman | — | |
| 1969 | Norman Mailer | — | |
| 1968 | William Troy | — | |
| 1967 | Justin Kaplan | — | |
| 1966 | Janet Flanner | — | |
| 1965 | Eleanor Clark | — | |
| 1964 | Aileen Ward | — | |
| 1963 | Leon Edel | — | |
| 1962 | Lewis Mumford | — | |
| 1961 | William L. Shirer | — | |
| 1960 | Richard Ellmann | — | |
| 1959 | J. Christopher Herold | — | |
| 1958 | Catherine Drinker Bowen | — | |
| 1957 | George F. Kennan | — | |
| 1956 | Herbert Kubly | — | |
| 1955 | Joseph Wood Krutch | — | |
| 1954 | Bruce Catton | — | |
| 1953 | Bernard De Voto | — | |
| 1952 | Rachel Carson | — | |
| 1951 | Newton Arvin | — | |
| 1950 | Ralph L. Rusk | — |
