Bancroft Prize
Nonfiction
1948 Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard Augustine De Voto1949 Rising Sun in the Pacific by Samuel Morison
History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II.
1950 Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains by Herbert Eugene Bolton1951 Virgin Land by Henry Nash Smith
Examines the significance and impact of the nineteenth-century Westward movement on American literature. Bibliogs.
1952 Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 by Comer Vann Woodward
This book is Volume Nine of 'A History Of The South, ' a series designed to present a thoroughly balanced history of all the complex aspects of the South's culture from 1607 to the present. Like its companion volumes, 'Origins Of The New South, ' is written by an outstanding student of Southern history.
1953 The Era of Good Feelings by George Dangerfield
This is a prize-winning history of the years between the terms of Presidents Jefferson and Jackson.
1954 The First American Revolution by Clinton Lawrence Rossiter
Analysis of the social, economic, intellectual, and political environment of the American Colonies before the Revolution and how these factors contributed to creating the break with England.
1955 Henry Adams by Elizabeth Stevenson1959 Henry Adams by Ernest Samuels
Ernest Samuels won a Pulitzer Prize for this single-volume abridgement of his three-volume life of Henry Adams. Samuels is a respected Adams scholar, known for editing his letters, and he places his subject in historical and literary context, while pointing out the discrepancies between Adams's life and its portrayal in his own THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS.
1960 Age of the Democratic Revolution by R. R. Palmer1962 Transformation of the School by Lawrence A. Cremin
1963 The Might of Nations by John G. Stoessinger
This highly successful basic text concentrates on the struggle for power and order in world affairs. Clearly organized and written in a vivid, engaging style, The Might of Nations provides exceptional breadth and depth of coverage of world politics since 1945.
1967 Prelude to Civil War the Nullification Controversy by William W. Freehling
Historian William Freehling won the prestigious Bancroft Prize in History for this analysis of the Nullification Crisis which was a key event in the pre-history of the Civil War. Freehling deflty shows how the inter-related issues of slavery, states' rights, and economic interests boiled over when, in 1832, South Carolina passed a law "nullifying" federal law, specifically a tariff that Southerners thought was onerous and designed to undermine them. Freehling describes the high drama of the episode, which included the threat to secede, as well as the key personalities, including President Andrew Jackson, Vice-President John C. Calhoun (who resigned his office in support of nullification), and Senator Henry Clay. As his title states, Freehling sees these events as a set-up of things to come almost three decades later.
1968 From Puritan to Yankee by Richard L. Bushman1969 Woodrow Wilson and World Politics; America's Response to War and Revolution by Norman Gordon Levin
1970 The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787 by Gordon S. Wood
By delving into the unique philosophical assumptions which distinguish the political attitudes of the colonists from classical, medieval ideas, the author illuminates the concepts of the Constitution.
1971 Image Empire by Erik Barnouw1972 Ordeal of the Union by Allan Nevins
1973 The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947 by John Lewis Gaddis
A study of American foreign policy and practices in the forties that focuses on the economic and political developments which forged the way for the Cold War.
1974 The Other Bostonians by Stephan Thernstrom1975 Deterrence in American Foreign Policy by Richard Smoke, Alexander George
1976 The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution 1770-1823 by David Brion Davis
Brion Davis displayed his mastery not only of a vast source of material, but also of the highly complex, frequently contradictory factors that influenced opinion on slavery. He has now followed this up with a study of equal quality....No one has written a book about the abolition of slavery that carries the conviction of Professor Davis's book.
1977 Class and Community by Alan Dawley1978 Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 by Morton Horwitz
1979 Allies of a Kind by Christopher G. Thorne
Explores the role Western colonial imperialism played in World War II.
1980 Women at Work by Thomas Dublin1981 Walter Lippmann and the American Century by Ronald Steel
Explores the private life and public career of the American political writer who, from Bull Moose Progressivism to the trauma of Watergate, wielded significant power over public opinion both at home and abroad.
1982 Cradle of the Middle Class by Mary P. Ryan1983 Eugene V. Debs by Nick Salvatore
Traces the life of the controversial American socialist and social reformer and assesses his role in American history.
1984 Booker T. Washington by Louis R. Harlan
A chronicle of Washington's last fifteen years reviews his accomplishments and explains how he gained strong political influence.
1985 The Free Women of Petersburg by Suzanne Lebsock
In a new book that has important implications for our vision of the female past, Suzanne Lebsock examines the question, Did the position of women in America deteriorate or improve in the first half of the nineteenth century? Winner of the Bancroft Prize for 1985.
1986 Crabgrass Frontier by Kenneth T. Jackson
Traces the development of American suburbs, suggests reasons for their growth, compares American residential patterns with those of Europe and Japan, and looks at future trends.
1987 Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia, 1860-1900 by Roger Lane1988 The Rise of American Air Power by Michael S. Sherry
This prizewinning book is the first in-depth history of American strategic bombing. Michael explores the growing appeal of air power in America before World War ii, the ideas, techniques, personalities, ad organizations that guided air attacks during the ear and the devastating effects of American and British 'conventional' bombing.
1989 Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
Describes the changes brought about by the Civil War, discusses the impact of slavery's end, and looks at the political, economic, and social aspects of Reconstruction.
1990 Dark Journey by Neil R. McMillen
This is a history of Mississippi's black people, its majority people, and their struggles to achieve autonomy and full citizenship during the critical period of disfranchisement, segregation, and exclusion following 1890.
1991 A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
This absorbing and illuminating chronicle of the life of a midwife in 18th-century Maine won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990.
1992 Nature's Metropolis by William Cronon
Argues that the American frontier and city developed together by focusing on Chicago and tracing its roots from Native American habitation to its transformation by white settlement and development.
1993 Margaret Fuller by Charles Capper
Transcendentalist, Romantic, feminist- Margaret Fuller was nothing less than the first woman in America to establish herself as a dominant figure in highbrow culture at large. If there was one man or woman whose connections among gender, intellectual culture, and the avant-garde, it was Margaret Fuller.
1994 The Age of Federalism by Eric L. McKitrick, Stanley M. Elkins
Written by two esteemed historians, this work gives readers a reflective, deeply formed analytical survey of this extraordinary period in American history. Ranging over the widest variety of concerns--political, cultural, economic, diplomatic, and military--the authors provides a sweeping historical account, keeping in view not only the problems faced by the new nation, but also the individuals who tried to solve them. Illustrations.
1995 Local People by John Dittmer
A well researched work that tells the story of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, beginning after World War II.
1996 William Cooper's Town by Alan Taylor
WILLIAM COOPER'S TOWN is the story of a father and son who embodied many of the contradictions that divided the United States during the early years of the Republic. William Cooper founded Cooperstown, New York, and his son, James Fenimore Cooper, became a successful novelist. Their story shows how Americans resolved the clash between gentility and democracy through the creation of new social forms and new stories that evolved with the expansion of the frontier.
1997 Grand Expectations by James T. Patterson
Beginning in 1945, America rocketed through a quarter-century of extraordinary economic growth, experiencing an amazing boom that soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. At one point, in the late 1940s, American workers produced 57 percent of the planet's steel, 62 percent of the oil, and 80 percent of the automobiles. The U.S. then had three-fourths of the world's gold supplies. English Prime Minister Edward Heath later said that the United States in the postwar era enjoyed "the greatest prosperity the world has ever known." It was a boom that produced a national euphoria, a buoyant time of grand expectations and an unprecedented faith in our government, in our leaders, and in the American dream--an optimistic spirit which would be shaken by events in the '60s and '70s, and particularly by the Vietnam War.
1998 Southern Cross by Christine Leigh Heyrman
That the South is popularly equated with "the Bible Belt" is a cliche of contemporary culture. And according to historian Christine Leigh Heyrman, it is also something of a misnomer--one she is determined to correct in "Southern Cross", her exhaustively researched history of the origins of Southern evangelicalism. In it she argues persuasively that now, as then, the truth is more complicated than popular wisdom allows.
1999 Name of War by Jill Lepore
A history of the largely forgotten 1675 Indian uprising in America, in which the Algonquian tribes massacred nearly half the white colonists of New England before they were put down (just as brutally) by British troops. Lepore, a history professor at Boston University, maintains that this was the most vicious war ever fought on American soil.
2000 Into the American Woods by James Hart Merrell
This history of the early years of the Pennsylvania colony from its founding in 1680 is told through an examination of the important role played by "go-betweens"--the interpreters, traders, and negotiators from both Indian and European groups who tried, with varying degrees of success, to bridge the cultural gap between their peoples.
2001 The Chief by David Nasaw
Newly released personal and business correspondences with Hollywood moguls, American Presidents, showgirls and European dictators made possible this comprehensive biography of William Randolph Hearst, powerful millionaire newspaperman. Here, his childhood, untiring ambition, and love life are deeply explored, culminating in a study of his modern-day castle San Simeon, and Marion Davies, the woman he kept there.