For a distinguished book upon the history of the United States, Seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500).
Awarded to "The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America" by Louis Menand (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Deep Souths: Delta, Piedmont, and the Sea Island Society in the Age of Segregation" by J. William Harris (The Johns Hopkins University Press), and "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America" by Daniel K. Richter (Harvard University Press).