The Los Angeles Times 2010 Book Prize finalists have just been announced — and I’m pleased to report that this year I served as a judge on the history panel. That meant that we had about a hundred books to read through and consider from this past year — and while edifying, it’s also a real time juggling challenge.
I really liked all five of these history category finalists:
Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life (The Penguin Press) John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq (W. W. Norton & Company and The New Press) Susan Dunn, Roosevelt’s Purge: How FDR Fought To Change the Democratic Party (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) Thomas Powers, The Killing of Crazy Horse (Knopf) Steven Solomon, Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization (HarperCollins)
Special thanks to James Fallows of The Atlantic and Diane Smith of Montana State University for their terrific work as co-judges of this history panel; and also to Ann Binney and Kenneth Turan for hanging in there with us as we went through our process selecting the finalists.
On April 29th, you’ll get to hear who the winner is.
— Steve Clemons
One comment on “LA Times History Book Prize Finalists”