Honor roll:Nonfiction books of the 1980s
From AwardAnnals
Each of these Nonfiction books has received at least one award nomination in the 1980s. They are ranked by honors received.
See also:
- Honor roll:Nonfiction books: 1990s, full list.
- Honor roll:Nonfiction authors.
- Category:Nonfiction book awards.
- Works 1–10 of 202
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Parting the Waters: Volume 1 of America in the King Years, 1954-1963
- 1989 LATimes–Current Interest winner
- 1989 Pulitzer–History winner
- 1988 NBCC–Nonfiction winner
- Score: 30.39
Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American civil rights movement, Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations. Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of America, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled since the Civil War.
Taylor Branch provides an unsurpassed portrait of King’s rise to greatness and illuminates the…
Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan.
Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly—or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan…
Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
The climax of this humane account of 10 years in Boston that began with news of Martin Luther King’s assassination, is a watershed moment in the city’s modern history—the 1974 racist riots that followed the court-ordered busing of kids to integrate the schools. To bring understanding to that moment, Lukas, a former New York Times journalist, focuses on two working-class families, headed by an Irish-American widow and an African-American mother, and on the middle-class family of a white liberal couple. Lukas goes beyond stereotypes, carefully grounding each…
A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt
- 1990 LATimes–Biography winner
- 1989 NBCC–Biography winner
- 1990 Pulitzer–Biography finalist
- Score: 26.4
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun
In 1853, few Japanese people knew that a country called America even existed.For centuries, Japan had isolated itself from the outside world by refusing to trade with other countries and even refusing to help shipwrecked sailors, foreign or Japanese. The country’s people still lived under a feudal system like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But everything began to change when American Commodore Perry and his troops sailed to the Land of the Rising Sun, bringing with them new science and technology, and a new way of life.
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
Sheehan’s tragic biography of John Paul Vann is also a sweeping history of America’s seduction, entrapment and disillusionment in Vietnam.
Richard Ellmann, one of the greatest biographers of our time, found his most compelling protagonist in Oscar Wilde. The book’s emotional resonance, its riches of authentic color and conversation, and the subtlety of its critical illuminations give dazzling life to this portrait of the complex man, the charmer, the great playwright, the daring champion of the primacy of art. Drawing on a wealth of documentation, Ellmann reveals a Wilde greater and more moving than his legend has allowed, a Wilde who even today challenges our assumptions with his provocative…
Chimney Sweeps: Yesterday and Today
Traces the history and folklore of the chimney-sweeping profession from the fifteenth century to the present day, emphasizing the plight of the often abused climbing boys of past centuries.
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