National Book Critics Circle Award General Nonfiction Winners and Finalists 1980-1999

1.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary 3.84 avg rating — 120,605 ratings
1.
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity 4.04 avg rating — 842 ratings
3.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures 4.20 avg rating — 87,600 ratings
4.
The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War
The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War 3.93 avg rating — 7,697 ratings
5.
Among Schoolchildren
Among Schoolchildren 3.96 avg rating — 2,684 ratings
6.
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era 4.40 avg rating — 33,177 ratings
7.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
The Making of the Atomic Bomb 4.40 avg rating — 23,886 ratings
8.
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic 4.39 avg rating — 28,867 ratings
9.
The Mismeasure of Man
The Mismeasure of Man 4.05 avg rating — 9,212 ratings
10.
The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on Saint Helena
The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on Saint Helena 3.92 avg rating — 140 ratings
11.
I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory
I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory 3.91 avg rating — 439 ratings
12.
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II 4.15 avg rating — 5,019 ratings
13.
Five Thousand Days Like This One: An American Family History
Five Thousand Days Like This One: An American Family History
by: Jane Brox
3.95 avg rating — 98 ratings
14.
Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior 4.18 avg rating — 929 ratings
15.
Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America 4.11 avg rating — 1,518 ratings
16.
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa 4.19 avg rating — 66,213 ratings
17.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families 4.22 avg rating — 35,953 ratings
18.
How the Mind Works
How the Mind Works 3.99 avg rating — 20,871 ratings
19.
American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence 3.95 avg rating — 1,292 ratings
20.
The Bible as It Was
The Bible as It Was 4.04 avg rating — 235 ratings
21.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster 4.26 avg rating — 550,971 ratings
22.
The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years
The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years 3.81 avg rating — 2,413 ratings
23.
Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris
Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris 3.92 avg rating — 290 ratings
24.
Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust 3.72 avg rating — 5,064 ratings
25.
Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World
Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World 3.86 avg rating — 1,077 ratings
26.
Bad Land: An American Romance
Bad Land: An American Romance 3.95 avg rating — 1,812 ratings
27.
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology 3.95 avg rating — 2,811 ratings
28.
All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence
All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence 4.36 avg rating — 1,198 ratings
29.
In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle 3.95 avg rating — 798 ratings
30.
A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books
A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books 4.04 avg rating — 2,254 ratings
31.
A Civil Action
A Civil Action 3.99 avg rating — 16,813 ratings
32.
The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America
The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America 3.65 avg rating — 1,654 ratings
33.
How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter
How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter 4.07 avg rating — 9,156 ratings
34.
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story 4.23 avg rating — 12,767 ratings
35.
Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas
Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas 4.18 avg rating — 528 ratings
36.
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire 4.26 avg rating — 5,208 ratings
37.
Genie: A Scientific Tragedy
Genie: A Scientific Tragedy 3.92 avg rating — 1,112 ratings
38.
The Last Panda
The Last Panda 4.07 avg rating — 112 ratings
39.
Whoredom In Kimmage: The Private Lives of Irish Women
Whoredom In Kimmage: The Private Lives of Irish Women 3.84 avg rating — 329 ratings
40.
The Land Where the Blues Began
The Land Where the Blues Began 4.31 avg rating — 850 ratings
41.
The Diversity of Life
The Diversity of Life 4.21 avg rating — 6,189 ratings
42.
Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil
Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil 4.21 avg rating — 1,146 ratings
43.
Home Fires
Home Fires 4.31 avg rating — 182 ratings
44.
Breaking the Maya Code
Breaking the Maya Code 4.01 avg rating — 758 ratings
45.
Young Men and Fire
Young Men and Fire 4.04 avg rating — 7,072 ratings
46.
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe 4.24 avg rating — 300 ratings
47.
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools 4.26 avg rating — 18,905 ratings
48.
Praying for Sheetrock
Praying for Sheetrock 3.98 avg rating — 1,602 ratings
49.
Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back
Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back 4.20 avg rating — 245 ratings
50.
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women 4.04 avg rating — 9,233 ratings
51.
The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath
The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath 3.95 avg rating — 177 ratings
52.
Disappearing Through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century
Disappearing Through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century 3.98 avg rating — 51 ratings
53.
Samba
Samba 3.76 avg rating — 230 ratings
54.
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles 4.21 avg rating — 4,679 ratings
55.
The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race In America
The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race In America 4.10 avg rating — 653 ratings
56.
The Rainy Season
The Rainy Season 4.07 avg rating — 238 ratings
57.
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and The Creation of the Modern Middle East
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and The Creation of the Modern Middle East 4.22 avg rating — 9,543 ratings
58.
Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class
Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class 4.03 avg rating — 646 ratings
59.
The Broken Cord
The Broken Cord 3.91 avg rating — 1,512 ratings
60.
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877
Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 4.21 avg rating — 6,119 ratings
61.
Europeans
Europeans 4.10 avg rating — 20 ratings
62.
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam 4.24 avg rating — 12,399 ratings
63.
Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-63
Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-63 4.36 avg rating — 9,962 ratings
64.
Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time
Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time 3.90 avg rating — 457 ratings
65.
Genius of the People
Genius of the People 4.16 avg rating — 239 ratings
66.
Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago
Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago 3.88 avg rating — 138 ratings
67.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water 4.28 avg rating — 11,658 ratings
68.
War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War 4.06 avg rating — 1,871 ratings
69.
Bird of Life, Bird of Death: A Naturalist's Journey Through a Land of Political Turmoil
Bird of Life, Bird of Death: A Naturalist's Journey Through a Land of Political Turmoil 3.98 avg rating — 105 ratings
70.
Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution
Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution 3.95 avg rating — 177 ratings
71.
Arctic Dreams
Arctic Dreams 4.23 avg rating — 8,799 ratings
72.
Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens
Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens 3.98 avg rating — 90 ratings
73.
Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans
Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans 3.98 avg rating — 317 ratings
74.
The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World
The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World 4.12 avg rating — 1,657 ratings
75.
House
House really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2,427 ratings
76.
Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families 4.32 avg rating — 2,727 ratings
77.
Son of the Morning Star: General Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Son of the Morning Star: General Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn 4.13 avg rating — 3,203 ratings
78.
The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History
The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History 3.88 avg rating — 2,801 ratings
79.
Brothers and Keepers: A Memoir
Brothers and Keepers: A Memoir 3.86 avg rating — 1,129 ratings
80.
The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945
The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945 4.16 avg rating — 244 ratings
81.
Weapons and Hope
Weapons and Hope 4.12 avg rating — 56 ratings
82.
Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World
Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World 3.88 avg rating — 176 ratings
83.
Present History
Present History 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings
84.
Distant Water: The Fate of the North Atlantic Fisherman
Distant Water: The Fate of the North Atlantic Fisherman 3.96 avg rating — 24 ratings
85.
Children of War
Children of War really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 18 ratings
86.
The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House
The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House 4.12 avg rating — 257 ratings
87.
Forms of Talk
Forms of Talk 3.85 avg rating — 106 ratings
88.
The Sage of Monticello
The Sage of Monticello 4.05 avg rating — 369 ratings
89.
No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880–1920
No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880–1920 4.06 avg rating — 205 ratings
90.
National Defense
National Defense 3.91 avg rating — 34 ratings
91.
Walt Whitman: A Life
Walt Whitman: A Life 3.95 avg rating — 313 ratings
92.
Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century
Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century 4.19 avg rating — 936 ratings
93.
China Men
China Men 3.74 avg rating — 2,034 ratings
94.
Alice James
Alice James 3.85 avg rating — 182 ratings
95.
Walter Lippmann and the American Century
Walter Lippmann and the American Century 4.27 avg rating — 109 ratings
96.
Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood
Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood 3.82 avg rating — 248 ratings
97.
Stolen Lightning: Social Theory of Magic
Stolen Lightning: Social Theory of Magic
by: OKEEFE,
3.88 avg rating — 25 ratings
98.
The Fate of the Earth
The Fate of the Earth 3.93 avg rating — 297 ratings
99.
The Nuclear Delusion
The Nuclear Delusion 3.65 avg rating — 17 ratings
100.
The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1)
The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1) 4.42 avg rating — 25,860 ratings