Past Winners and Finalists

2017

Winner

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Finalists

George Washington's Journey: The President Forges a New Nation by T.H. Breen

"Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf

A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley by Jane Kamensky

The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution by Michael J. Klarman

Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle by Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone

American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor

2016

Winner

The Washingtons: George and Martha, "Join'd by Friendship, Crown'd by Love" by Flora Fraser

Finalists

Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention by Mary Sarah Bilder

Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution by Kathleen DuVal

Washington's Revolution: The Making of America's First Leader by Robert Middlekauff

Revolutions without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World by Janet Polasky

Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of Monongahela and the Road to Revolution by David Preston

War of Two: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Duel that Stunned the Nation by John Sedgwick

2015

Special Award

Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Winner 

Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America by Nick Bunker

Finalists

A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Jamaica and Virginia by Richard S. Dunn

When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees who Shaped a Nation by Francois Furstenberg

The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding by Eric Nelson

2014

Winner

The Men who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Finalists

The First Presidential Contest: 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy by Jeffrey L. Pasley 

The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor

2013

Winner

George Washington: Gentleman Warrior by Stephen Brumwell

Finalists

Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire by Eliga H. Gould

Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times by Cynthia A. Kierner

Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood by Brian Steele

2012

Winner

Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff

Finalists

Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction by John Fea

Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty: The Continental Congress and the People Out of Doors by Benjamin H. Irvin

2011

Winner

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 by Pauline Maier

Finalists

Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America by Jack Rakove

The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies by Alan Taylor

2010

Winner

Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution by Richard Beeman

Finalists

The Founding Fathers Reconsidered by R.B. Bernstein

Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage by Edith B. Gelles

2009

Winner

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed

Finalists

The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson by Kevin J. Hayes

The Exchange Artist: A Tale of High-Flying Speculation and America's First Banking Collapse by Jane Kamensky

2008

Winner

The Slave Ship: A Human History by Marcus Rediker

Finalists

Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton

1812: War with America by Jon Latimer

2007

Winner

Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution by Charles Rappleye

Finalists

In the Name of the Father by Francois Furstenberg

A Perfect Union by Catherine Allgor

2006

Winner

A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Stacy Schiff

Finalists

General George Washington: A Military Life by Edward Lengel

America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783 by Stanley Weintraub

2005

Winner

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Finalists

Landon Carter's Uneasy Kingdom by Rhys Isaac

The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by by Gordon S. Wood