Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History
The 21th Annual Competition
Purpose: To promote the reading and study of American history.
Prize: An engraved medal (patterned after a medal in the New-York Historical Society’s collection), $50,000 cash prize to the author and the title of American Historian Laureate. The award will be presented in April 2026 at the Chair’s Council Weekend with History, an annual gathering of the New-York Historical Society’s most committed supporters.
Eligibility: Awarded for a non-fiction book on American history or biography copyrighted in 2025 that is distinguished by its scholarship, its literary style and its appeal to a general as well as an academic audience.
The winner of the 2025 book prize was Randall K. Wilson for A Place Called Yellowstone. Previous winners include: Jonathan Eig, King: a Life; Beverly Gage, G-Man; Alan Taylor, American Republics; Tracy Campbell, The Year of Peril; Benn Steil, The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War; John A. Farrell, Richard Nixon: The Life; Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad; Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman; Jane Kamensky, A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley; Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution and the Fate of the Empire; John Lewis Gaddis, George F. Kennan: An American Life; Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals; David Nasaw, Andrew Carnegie; Daniel Walker Howe, What God Hath Wrought; Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering; Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty; Ron Chernow, George Washington; and Robert Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
Method of Submission: There is no fee to submit a book for consideration. You must complete the form below and send five copies of each book submission to:
Jeanne Gutierrez
The New York Historical
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
We encourage submissions to be sent as soon as possible. All submissions must be received by December 19, 2025.
Submit a BookFor more information, please email:
Jeanne Gutierrez, New-York Historical Society
jeanne.gutierrez@nyhistory.org
