Annal:1991 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest

From AwardAnnals

Results of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the year 1991. Note that The Prize and The Promised Land received no honor points for this category because they were also finalists in the History category. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:

Why Americans Hate Politics: The Death of the Democratic Process

E.J. Dionne

1991 LATimes–Current Interest winner
1991 NBA–Nonfiction finalist
Score: 16.41

All over the United States, Americans are deserting the political process. Why? In this national bestseller, one of our shrewdest political observers traces thirty years of volatile political history and finds that on point after point, liberals and conservatives are framing issues as a series of “false choices,” making it impossible for politicians to solve problems, and alienating voters in the process. Now with a new afterword discussing the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and the 1992 presidential election, Dionne explores what has gone wrong with the American system and offers a back-to-basics approach to politics designed to respond to the anger of America’s restive majority.

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The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race In America

Shelby Steele

1990 NBCC–Nonfiction winner
1991 LATimes–Current Interest finalist
Score: 16.4

In this controversial essay collection, award-winning writer Shelby Stelle illuminates the origins of the current conflict in race relations—the increase in anger, mistrust, and even violence between black and whites. With candor and persuasive argument, he shows us how both black and white Americans have become trapped into seeing color before character, and how social policies designed to lessen racial inequities have instead increased them. The Content of Our Character is neither “liberal” nor “conservative,” but an honest, courageous look at America’s most enduring and wrenching social dilemma.

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The Prize: The Epic Quest For Oil, Money & Power

Daniel Yergin

The Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil—and the struggle for wealth power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous—from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.

The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement—and great importance.

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The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America

Nicholas Lemann

1991 LATimes–History winner
1991 LATimes–Current Interest finalist*
Score: 10.41

A New York Times bestseller, the groundbreaking authoritative history of the migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North. A definitive book on American history, The Promised Land is also essential reading for educators and policymakers at both national and local levels.

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