Previous winners of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize

Previous winners of and finalists for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.

2024

First Place: Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant, “Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era”

Finalists:

Frank J. Cirillo, “The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union”
John C. Rodrigue, “Freedom’s Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley”
Yael A. Sternhell, “War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War”
Ronald C. White, “On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain”

2023

First Place: Jon Meachem, “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,” and Jonathan W. White, “A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House”

Finalists:

Elizabeth D. Leonard, “Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life”

Roger Lowenstein, “Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War”
Rita Roberts, “I Can’t Wait to Call You My Wife: African American Letters of Love and Family in the Civil War Era”

2022

First Place: Caroline E. Janney, "Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee's Army after Appomattox"

Finalists:

Andrew F. Lang, “A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era”
Kate Masur, “Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction”
James Oakes, “The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution”
Alaina Roberts, “I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land”
John M. Sacher, “Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers”
Kevin Waite, “West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire”

2021

First Place: David S. Reynolds, “Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times”

Finalists:

Alice Baumgartner, “South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War”
Adrian Brettle, “Colossal Ambitions: Confederate Planning for a Post-Civil War World”
Thavolia Glymph, “The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation”
Kenneth W. Noe, “The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War”

2020

First Place: Elizabeth R. Varon, “Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War”

Finalists:

Eric Foner, “The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution”
Matthew Fox-Amato, “Exposing Slavery: Photography, Human Bondage, and the Birth of Modern Visual Politics in America”
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South”
W. Caleb McDaniel, “Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America”
Jessie Morgan-Owens, “Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement”
Joseph P. Reidy, “Illusions of Emancipation: The Pursuit of Freedom and Equality in the Twilight of Slavery”
David Silkenat, “Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War (University of North Carolina Press)”

2019

First Place: David Blight, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom”

Finalists:

Richard J. M, Blackett, “The Captive’s Quest for Freedom: Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery”
William W., Freehling, “Becoming Lincoln”
Joanne B., Freeman, “The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War”
Diane Miller, Sommerville, “Aberration of Mind: Suicide and Suffering in the Civil War–Era South”

2018

First Place: Edward Ayers, “The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America”

Finalists:

Ron, Chernow, “Grant”
Tera, Hunter, “Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century”
Cate, Lineberry, “Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero”
Graham A., Peck, “Making an Antislavery Nation Lincoln, Douglas and the Battle over Freedom”
Rhea, Gordon, “On to Petersburg: Grant and Lee, June 4-15, 1864”
Adam I. P., Smith, “The Stormy Present: Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846–1865”

2017

First Place:

James B. Conroy, “Lincoln’s White House: The People’s House in Wartime”
Douglas R. Egerton, “Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America”

Finalists:

D. H. Dilbeck, “A More Civil War: How the Union Waged a Just War”
Chandra Manning, “Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War”
Charles B. Strozier, “Your Friend Forever, A. Lincoln: The Enduring Friendship of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed”

Special Achievement Award: Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, eds., “Herndon on Lincoln: Letters”

2016

First Place: Martha Hodes, “Mourning Lincoln”

Finalists:

Michael Anderegg, “Lincoln and Shakespeare”
Eric Foner, “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad”
Richard Wightman Fox, “Lincoln’s Body: A Cultural History"
Earl J. Hess, “Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness”
Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin Shapell, “Lincoln and the Jews: A History”
John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd, and Celeste-Marie Bernier, “Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American”

2015

First Place: Harold Holzer, “Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion”

Finalists:

William Blair, “With Malice Toward Some: Treason and Loyalty in the Civil War Era”
Richard Brookhiser, “Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln”
James B. Conroy, “Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865”
Jonathan W. White, “Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln”
Joshua Zeitz, “Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image”

2014

First Place:

Allen C. Guelzo, “Gettysburg: The Last Invasion”
Martin P. Johnson, “Writing the Gettysburg Address”

Special Achievement Award: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Finalists:

Christopher Hager, “Word by Word: Emancipation and the Act of Writing”
Margaret Humphreys, “Marrow of Tragedy: The Health Crisis of the American Civil War”
Robert E. May, “Slavery, Race, and Conquest in the Tropics: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Future of Latin America”
John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On”

2013

First Place: James Oakes, “Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States,1861–1865”

Finalists:

Stephen Kantrowitz, “More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic, 1829–1889”
Yael A. Sternhell, “Routes of War: The World of Movement in the Confederate South”

2012

First Place:

William C. Harris, “Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union”
Elizabeth D. Leonard, “Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky”

Honorable Mention: Barbara A. Gannon, “The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic”

2011

First Place: Eric Foner, “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery”

Honorable Mentions:

Robert Bray, “Reading with Lincoln”
Lorien Foote, “The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Violence, Honor and Manhood in the Union Army”
Mark W. Geiger, “Financial Fraud and the Guerilla Violence in Missouri’s Civil War, 1861–1865”
Stanley Harrold, “Border War: Fighting Over Slavery Before the Civil War”
Kate Masur, “An Example of All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle over Equality in Washington D.C.”
Howard Jones, “Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations”

2010

First Place: Michael Burlingame, “Abraham Lincoln: A Life”

Finalists:

Robert McGlone, “John Brown’s War Against Slavery”
Mark Wahlgren Summers, “A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia, and the Making of Reconstruction”

2009

First Place:

James McPherson, “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief”
Craig Symonds, “Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War”

Honorable Mentions:

Jacqueline Jones, “Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War”
Fred Kaplan, “Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer and William Lee Miller,” “President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman”

2008

First Place:

James Oakes, “The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics”
Elizabeth Brown Pryor, “Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters”

Finalist: Robert Cooke, “Troubled Commemoration: The American Civil War Centennial, 1961–1965”

Honorable Mention: Chandra Manning, “What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War”

2007

First Place: Douglas L. Wilson, “Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words”

Finalists:

Martha Hodes, “The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century”
Harry S. Stout, “Upon the Alter of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War”

2006

First Place: Doris Kearns Goodwin, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”

Finalists:

Ronald White, “The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through his Words”
Steven Woodworth, “Nothing But Victory: The Army of Tennessee 1961–1865”
Sean Wilentz, “The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln”

Honorable Mentions:

Carol Bundy, “The Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., 1835–1864”
Margaret Creighton, “The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg’s Forgotten History - Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War’s Defining Battle”
Richard F. Miller, “Harvard’s Civil War: A History of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry”

2005

First Place: Allen C. Guelzo, “Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation”

Second Place: Harold Holzer, “Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President”

Finalists:

Jonathan D. Martin, “Divided Mastery: Slave Hiring in the American South”
Jane A. Schultz, “Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America”

2004

First Place: Richard J. Carwardine, “Lincoln”

Special Achievement Award: John Y. Simon for editing 26 volumes—to date—of “The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant”

Finalist: Steven Hahn, “A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration”

2003

First Place: George C. Rable, “Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!”

Second Place: John Stauffer, “The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race”

Honorable Mention: Michael Fitzgerald, “Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile, 1860–1890”

E-Lincoln Prize: John Adler for “HarpWeek Presents Lincoln and the Civil War.com” (website)

2002

First Place: David Blight, “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory”

Honorable Mention:

Alice Fahs, “The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North & South, 1861–1865”
Kenneth J. Winkle, “The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln”

2001

First Place: Russell F. Weigley, “A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861–1865”

Second Place: Leonard L. Richards, “The Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780–1860”

Finalist: Mark L. Bradley, “This Astounding Close Road to Bennett Place”

E-Lincoln Prize Winner: Edward L. Ayers, Anne S. Rubin, and William G. Thomas for “Valley of the Shadow: The Eve of War” (CD-ROM)

E-Lincoln Prize Second Place: Stephen Railton for “Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture” (website)

2000

First Place:

John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger, “Runaway Slaves: Rebels in the Plantation”
Allen C. Guelzo, “Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President”

Second Place: Michael Holt, “The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War”

Lifetime Achievement Award: Richard N. Current, University Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

1999

First Place: Douglas L. Wilson, “Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln”

Second Place: J. Tracy Power, “Lee’s Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, from the Wilderness to Appomattox”

1998

First Place: Jim McPherson, “For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War”

Second Place: William C. Harris, “With Charity For All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union”

Honorable Mentions:

Gary Gallagher, “The Confederate War: How Popular Will, Nationalism, and Military Strategy Could Not Stave off Defeat”
James Robertson, Jr., “Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend”

1997

First Place: Don Fehrenbacher, Lifetime Achievement with special recognition of “Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s” and “The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics”

1996

First Place: David Donald, “Lincoln”

Second Place: Mark Grimsley, “ The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians 1861–1865”

Finalist: Michael Fellman, “Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman”

1995

First Place: Phillip Shaw Paludan, “The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln”

Second Place: William Marvel, “Andersonville: The Last Depot”

Finalist: Charles B. Dew, “Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge”

1994

First Place: Ira Berlin, Barbara Fields, Steven Miller, Joseph Reidy, Leslie Rowland, eds., “Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War”

Second Place: Reid Mitchell, “The Vacant Chair: The Northern Soldier Leaves Home”

Finalists:

Winthrop D. Jordan, “Tumult and Silence at Second Creek: An Inquiry into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy”
John Evangelist Walsh, “The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln and the Anne Rutledge Legend”

1993

First Place: Kenneth Stampp, Lifetime Achievement with special recognition of “The Peculiar Institution”

Second Place: Albert Castel, “Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864”

Finalists:

John F. Marszalek, “Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order” (Vintage Books)
Craig L. Symonds “Joseph E. Johnston, A Civil War Biography”

1992

First Place:

William S. McFeely, “Frederick Douglass”
Charles Royster, “The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans”

Finalist: Ira Berlin, et al., “Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation 1861–1867: Series I, Volume III, The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Lower South”

1991

First Place: Ken Burns, “The Civil War”

Finalists:

Mark E. Neely, Jr., “The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties”
Warren Wilkinson, “Mother May You Never See The Sights I Have Seen: The Fifty-Seventh Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers in the Last Year of the Civil War”