NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Ned Blackhawk's 鈥淭he Rediscovery of America,鈥� winner last fall of a National Book Award, is a finalist for a history honor presented by the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project.
Blackhawk's account of Native Americans over the past five centuries is among five nominees for the Mark Lynton History Prize, a $10,000 award given for work which 鈥渃ombines intellectual distinction with felicity of expression.鈥� The other books cited were Gary J. Bass' 鈥淛udgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia"; Jonathan Eig's biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 鈥淜ing: A Life鈥�; Dylan C. Penningroth's 鈥淏efore the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights鈥� and Yepoka Yeebo's 鈥淎nansi鈥檚 Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World.鈥�
Finalists for the Lukas Book Prize, also worth $10,000, are Kerry Howley's 鈥淏ottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State鈥�; Cara McGoogan's 鈥淏lood Farm: The Explosive Big Pharma Scandal that Altered the AIDS Crisis鈥�; Cameron McWhirter's and Zusha Elinson's 鈥淎merican Gun: The True Story of the AR-15鈥�; Joe Sexton's 鈥淭he Lost Sons of Omaha: Two Young Men in an American Tragedy鈥� and Dashka Slater's 鈥淎ccountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed.鈥�
The is given for a book which demonstrates 鈥渓iterary grace, commitment to serious research and original reporting.鈥�
The Lukas prize project also announced the shortlist for the Lukas Work-In-Progress Awards, for which two winners each receive $25,000 to 鈥渁id in the completion of a significant work of nonfiction on a topic of American political or social concern.鈥�
The nominees are Lorraine Boissoneault's 鈥淏ody Weather: Notes on Illness in the Anthropocene鈥�; Alice Driver's 鈥淭he Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America鈥檚 Largest Meatpacking Company鈥�; Ranita Ray's 鈥淰iolent Schools: Slow Death in the American Classroom鈥�; Jessica Slice's 鈥淯nfit Parent: On the Barriers and Brilliance of Raising Kids While Disabled and Chronically Ill鈥� and Nilo Tabrizy and Khadijah Heydari's 鈥淔or the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran鈥檚 Women-Led Uprising.鈥�
Winners will be announced March 19. The Lukas prizes, named for the late author and investigative journalist, were founded in 1998. They are co-administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and sponsored by the family of the late historian and businessman Mark Lynton.
have included Robert Caro, Isabel Wilkerson and Jill Lepore.
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
