The PROSE Awards annually recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals, and electronic content in over 40 categories. Judged by peer publishers, librarians, and medical professionals since 1976, the PROSE Awards are extraordinary for their breadth and depth. For more information about the Professional Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers, sponsor of this award, click here.
Prize awarded to books about philosophy, religion, religious studies, and theology
2024 [Philosophy] In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility by Costica Bradatan ; [Theology and religious studies] Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins by Jacob L. Wright
2023 When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness by David M. Peña-Guzmán
2022 Hegel’s Century: Alienation and Recognition in a Time of Revolution by Jon Stewart
2021 Freedom: An Unruly History by Annelein de Dijn
2020 Learning from my daughter : the value and care of disabled minds by Eva Feder Kittay
2019 Down girl : the logic of misogyny by Kate Manne
2018 Understanding ignorance : the surprising impact of what we don't know by Daniel DeNicola; Heretics! : the wondrous (and dangerous) beginnings of modern philosophy by Steven Nadler and Ben Nadler (honorable mention); Paul : the pagans' apostle by Paula Fredrikson; Genes, determinism, and God by Denis Alexander (honorable mention)
2017 Echoes of scripture in the gospels by Richard B. Hays; History and presence by Robert A. Orsi (honorable mention); In the beginning was the word : the Bible in American public life, 1492-1783 by Mark A. Noll (honorable mention); The ground has shifted : the future of the black church in post-racial America by Walter Earl Fluker (honorable mention)
2016 How propaganda works by Jason Stanley; Ockham's razors : a user's manual by Elliott Sober (honorable mention); The ethics of suicide : historical sources, edited by Margaret Pabst Battin (honorable mention); What's divine about divine law? : early perspectives by Christine Hayes; The ransom of the soul : afterlife and wealth in early western Christianity by Peter Brown (honorable mention); The vice of luxury : economic excess in a consumer age by David Cloutier (honorable mention); Who made early Christianity? : the Jewish lives of the Apostle Paul by John G. Gager (honorable mention)
2015 Torture, power, and law by David Luban; How should we live? : a practical approach to everyday morality by John Kekes (honorable mention); Would you kill the fat man? : the trolley problem and what your answer tells us about right and wrong by David Edmonds (honorable mention); Augustine deformed : love, sin and freedom in the Western moral tradition by John M. Rist; David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical memory by Jacob L. Wright (honorable mention); Emil Brunner – a reappraisal by Alister E. McGrath (honorable mention); Maimonides : life and thought by Moshe Halbertal (honorable mention)
2012 Kantian reason and Hegelian spirit : the idealistic logic of modern theology by Gary Dorrien; The philosophy of Hebrew scripture : an introduction by Yoram Hazony (honorable mention)
2011 The ethical project by Philip Kitcher; A book forged in hell : Spinoza's scandalous treatise and the birth of the secular age by Steven Nadler; The religious question in modern China by Vincent Goossaert and David A. Palmer; Christianity in evolution : an exploration by Jack Mahoney (honorable mention); Food and faith : a theology of eating by Norman Wirzba (honorable mention); How Judaism became a religion : an introduction to modern Jewish thought by Leora Batnitzky (honorable mention)
2010 Friedrich Nietzsche : a philosophical biography by Dr. Julian Young; The new metaphysicals : spirituality and the American religious imagination by Courtney Bender; Surviving death by Mark Johnston (honorable mention); In the name of God : the evolutionary origins of religious ethics and violence by John Teehan (honorable mention); What is a person? : rethinking humanity, social life, and the moral good from the person up by Christian Smith (honorable mention)
2009 Plato's philosophers : the coherence of the dialogues by Catherine H. Zuckert; Hard truths by Elijah Millgram (honorable mention); Boundless faith : the global outreach of American churches by Robert Wuthnow; Sinister yogis by David Gordon White (honorable mention)
2008 Made with words : Hobbes on language, mind, and politics by Philip Pettit; Aristotle's dialogue with Socrates : on the "Nicomachean Ethics" by Ronna Burger (honorable mention); A guide to the good life : the ancient art of Stoic joy by William B. Irvine (honorable mention); Catholic moral theology in the United States : a history by Charles E. Curran; The Orthodox Church : an introduction to its history, doctrine, and spiritual culture by John Anthony McGuckin (honorable mention); Resurrection : the power of God for Christians and Jews by Kevin J. Madigan & Jon D. Levenson (honorable mention)
2007 Only a promise of happiness : the place of beauty in a world of art by Alexander Nehamas; The really hard problem : meaning in a material world by Owen J. Flanagan (honorable mention); The voice, the Word, the books : the sacred scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims by F. E. Peters
2006 Pessimism : philosophy, ethic, spirit by Joshua Foa Dienstag; The natural history of the Bible : an environmental exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures by Daniel Hillel; The rise and fall of soul and self : an intellectual history of personal identity by Raymond Martin and John Barresi (honorable mention); Therese of Lisieux : God's gentle warrior by Thomas R. Nevin (honorable mention)
2005 The ethics of identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah; God's mountain : the Temple Mount in time, place, and memory by Yeron Eliav; The invention of world religions : or, how European universalism was preserved in the language of pluralism by Tomoko Masuzawa; Truth : a guide by Simon Blackburn (honorable mention)
2004 The reasons of love by Harry G. Frankfurt; The Jewish century by Yuri Slezkine; American Judaism : a history by Jonathan Sarna (honorable mention)
2003 Philosophical analysis in the twentieth century by Scott Soames; Walking the tightrope of reason : the precarious life of a rational animal by Robert Fogelin; The monotheists : Jews, Christians, and Muslims in conflict and competition by Frank Peters; God's man for the Gilded Age : D.L. Moody and the rise of modern mass evangelism by Bruce J. Evensen (honorable mention)
2002 Evil in modern thought : an alternative history of philosophy by Susan Neiman; Mirror of His beauty : feminine images of God from the Bible to the early Kabbalah by Peter Schäfer; Truth and truthfulness : an essay in genealogy by Bernard Williams (honorable mention); When church became theatre : the transformation of evangelical architecture and worship in nineteenth-century America by Jeanne Halgren Kilde (honorable mention)
2001 Sacred pain : hurting the body for the sake of the soul by Ariel Glucklich
2000 Fits, trances, & visions : experiencing religion and explaining experience from Wesley to James by Ann Taves; The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages : methodology and source studies, regional developments, hagiography : written in honor of Professor Ruth Steiner, edited by Margot E. Fassler and Rebecca A. Baltzer; Good taste, bad taste, & Christian taste : aesthetics in religious life by Frank Burch Brown
1999 Protestants & pictures : religion, visual culture, and the age of American mass production by David Morgan
1998 Consciousness in action by S. L. Hurley
1996 Augustine the reader : meditation, self-knowledge, and the ethics of interpretation by Brian Stock
1995 Tears and saints by E. M. Cioran
1994 The holocaust in historical context : volume 1 : The holocaust and mass death before the modern age by Steven T. Katz
1993 The origins of Christian morality : the first two centuries by Wayne A. Meeks
1992 Madonnas that maim : popular Catholicism in Italy since the fifteenth century by Michael P. Carroll
1991 Fundamentalisms observed, edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby
The Book Prize is awarded in odd years for the best, published book that was written by a younger scholar during the previous two years. For more information about the American Philosophical Association, sponsors of this award, click here.
2023 Context and Coherence: The Logic and Grammar of Prominence by Una Stojnić
2021 Games : agency as art by C. Thi Nguyen; Unsettled thoughts : a theory of degrees of rationality by Julia Staffel (honorable mention)
2019 Down girl : the logic of misogyny by Kate Manne; Probabilistic knowledge by Sarah Moss (honorable mention)
2017 Achievement by Gwen Bradford; Evidence and agency : norms of belief for promising and resolving by Berislav Marušić (honorable mention)
2015 Building better beings : a theory of moral responsibility by Manuel Vargas; Quitting certainties : a Bayesian framework modeling degrees of belief by Michael Titelbaum (honorable mention); How we hope : a moral psychology by Adrienne Martin (honorable mention)
2013 Global justice and territory by Cara Nine; Globalization and global justice : shrinking distance, expanding obligations by Nicole Hassoun (honorable mention); Minimizing marriage : marriage, morality, and the law by Elizabeth Brake (honorable mention)
2011 Delusions and other irrational beliefs by Lisa Bortolotti; The red and the real : an essay on color ontology by Jonathan Cohen (honorable mention)
2009 The limits of loyalty by Simon Keller; The normative web : an argument for moral realism by Terence Cuneo (honorable mention); Sounds : a philosophical theory by Casey O'Callaghan (honorable mention)
2007 Knowledge and practical interests by Jason Stanley; Action in perception by Alva Noë (honorable mention); Epistemology after Protagoras : responses to relativism in Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus by Mi-Kyoung Lee (honorable mention)
2005 Thomas Aquinas on human nature : a philosophical study of Summa theologiae 1a, 75-89 by Robert Pasnau; Moral realism : a defense by Russ Shafer-Landau (honorable mention); A defense of abortion by David Boonin (honorable mention)
2003 Four-dimensionalism : an ontology of persistence and time by Ted Sider
2001 The significance of consciousness by Charles Siewert; Practical induction by Elijah Millgram (honorable mention)
2000 The moral problem by Michael Smith; The disorder of things : metaphysical foundations of the disunity of science by John Dupre (honorable mention); Vagueness : a reader by Timothy Williamson (honorable mention)
The Joyce Mitchell Cook Award is a biennial award in honor of Joyce Mitchell Cook, the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy in the United States, recognizing a book written by a trailblazing black woman philosopher. This award has been suspended. For more information about the American Philosophical Association, sponsors of this award, click here.
2014 Hannah Arendt and the Negro question by Kathryn Gines
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award is offered for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity. Established in 1960, this award may recognize work in the fields of history, philosophy and religion. These fields are conceived in sufficiently broad terms to permit the inclusion of appropriate work in related fields such as anthropology and the social sciences. Biographies of public figures may be eligible if their primary critical emphasis is on the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity. Click Phi Beta Kappa Society for more information about the sponsor of these awards.
2024 Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance By Jeremy Eichler
2023 Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War by Deborah Cohen
2022 All that she carried : the journey of Ashley's sack, a Black family keepsake by Tiya Alicia Miles
2021 South to freedom : runaway slaves to Mexico and the road to the Civil War by Alice Baumgartner
2020 Policing the open road : how cars transformed American freedom by Sarah Seo
2019 The known citizen : a history of privacy in modern America by Sarah E. Igo
2018 Greater Gotham : a history of New York City from 1898 to 1919 by Mike Wallace
2017 From the war on poverty to the war on crime : the making of mass incarceration in America by Elizabeth Hinton
2016 The murder of William of Norwich : the origins of the blood libel in Medieval Europe by E. M. Rose
2015 The Parthenon enigma by Joan Breton Connelly
2014 Anti-Judaism : the Western tradition by David Nirenberg
2013 Short nights of the Shadow Catcher : the epic life and immortal photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan
2012 Armies of heaven : the first crusade and the quest for apocalypse by Jay Rubenstein
2011 Bloodlands : Europe between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
2008 Muhammad's grave : death rites and the making of Islamic society by Leor Halevi
2007 Inhuman bondage : the rise and fall of slavery in the New World by David Brion Davis
2006 American curiosity : cultures of natural history in the colonial British Atlantic world by Susan Scott Parrish
2005 Absolute destruction : military culture and the practices of war in Imperial Germany by Isabel Hull
2004 The end of the soul : scientific modernity, atheism, and anthropology in France by Jennifer Michael Hecht
2003 The eye of the Lynx : Galileo, his friends, and the beginnings of modern natural history by David Freedberg
2002 Ermengard of Narbonne and the world of the troubadours by Fredric L. Cheyette
2001 Van Gogh and Gauguin : the search for sacred art by Debora Silverman
2000 The Holocaust in American life by Peter Novick
1999 A history of madness in sixteenth-century Germany by H. C. Eric Midelfort
1998 The name of war : King Philip's War and the origins of American identity by Jill Lepore
1997 Spinoza, liberalism, and the question of Jewish identity by Steven B. Smith
1996 Codex Telleriano-Remensis : ritual, divination, and history in a pictorial Aztec manuscript by Eloise Quinones Keber
1995 The resurrection of the body in Western Christianity, 220-1336 by Caroline Walker Bynum
1994 W. E. B. Du Bois -- biography of a race, 1868-1919 by David Levering Lewis
1993 Protecting soldiers and mothers : the political origins of social policy in the United States by Theda Skocpol
1992 The radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
1991 In search of human nature : the decline and revival of Darwinism in American social thought by Carl N. Degler
1990 America's Rome by William L. Vance
1989 The body and society : men, women, and sexual renunciation in early Christianity by Peter Brown
1988 The fall of the house of labor : the workplace, the state, and American labor activism, 1865-1925 by David Montgomery.
1987 Ecological imperialism : the biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900 by Alfred W. Crosby (2d ed. (2004) here)
1986 The world of thought in ancient China by Benjamin I. Schwartz
1985 The crucible of race : black/white relations in the American South since emancipation by Joel Williamson
1984 Against the apocalypse : responses to catastrophe in modern Jewish culture by David G. Roskies
1983 The war within : from Victorian to modernist thought in the South, 1919-1945 by Daniel Joseph Singal
1982 Philosophical explanations by Robert Nozick
1981 White supremacy : a comparative study in American and South African history by George M. Fredrickson
1980 Utopian thought in the Western World by Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel
1979 The printing press as an agent of change : communications and cultural transformations in early modern Europe by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein
1978 The rise of American philosophy : Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930 by Bruce Kuklick
1977 Peasants into Frenchmen : the modernization of rural France, 1870-1914 by Eugen Weber
1976 The Great War and modern memory by Paul Fussell (25th anniversary ed. here)
1975 The venture of Islam : conscience and history in a world civilization by Marshall G. S. Hodgson
1974 Venice, a maritime republic by Frederic C. Lane
1973 Reflections on the causes of human misery and upon certain proposals to eliminate them by Barrington Moore, Jr.
1972 A theory of justice by John Rawls
1971 American convictions : cycles of public thought, 1600-1850 by Charles A. Barker
1970 Love and will by Rollo May
1969 Weimar culture : the outsider as insider by Peter Gay
1968 White over black : American attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812 by Winthrop D. Jordan (1974 version)
1967 Children of crisis : a study of courage and fear by Robert Coles
1966 The career of philosophy, volume 2 : from the German Enlightenment to the age of Darwin by John Herman Randall, Jr.
1965 O strange new world : American culture : the formative years by Howard Mumford Jones
1964 Race : the history of an idea in America by Thomas F. Gossett
1963 Anti-intellectualism in American life by Richard Hofstadter
1962 Freedom in the ancient world by Herbert J. Muller
1961 Mysticism and philosophy by W. T. Stace
1960 Philosophy and the modern world by Albert William Levi
The Sanders Book Prize is awarded to the best book in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, or epistemology that engages the analytic tradition published in English in the previous five-year period. For more information about the American Philosophical Association, sponsors of this award, click American Philosophical Association. This award appears to be suspended.
2019 The metaphysics of truth by Douglas Edwards; Pieces of mind by Carrie Figdor (honorable mention); The unity of perception by Susanna Schellenberg (honorable mention)
2018 The fragmentation of being by Kristopher McDaniel; Hume's true scepticism by Donald Ainslie (honorable mention)
2017 Ontology made easy by Amie Thomasson; Ockham's razors : a user's manual by Elliott Sober (honorable mention)
2016 Evidence and agency : norms of belief for promising and resolving by Berislav Marušić
2015 Unruly words by Diana Raffman; Making sense of freedom and responsibility by Dana Nelkin (honorable mention)
2014 Causation : a user's guide by L. A. Paul and Ned Hall
2013 Effective intentions : the power of conscious will by Alfred Mele
For more information about the National Book Award, click here.
These award categories ended in 1983.
1983 "Subtle is the Lord-- " : the science and the life of Albert Einstein by Abraham Pais (Science); The mathematical experience by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh (Science)
1982 Lucy, the beginnings of humankind by Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey (Science); Taking the quantum leap : the new physics for nonscientists by Fred Alan Wolf (Science)
1981 The panda's thumb : more reflections in natural history by Stephen Jay Gould (Science); The medusa and the snail : more notes of a biology watcher by Lewis Thomas (Science)
1980 The gnostic gospels by Elaine Pagels (R/I); A severe mercy by Sheldon Vanauken (R/I); Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter (Science); The dancing wu li masters : an overview of the new physics by Gary Zukav (Science)
Awards for Sciences and for Philosophy and Religion were discontinued in 1975. They reappeared in 1980 as Religion/Inspiration and Science, but the Religion/Inspiration awards were discontinued after 1980.
1975 Anarchy, state, and utopia by Robert Nozick (Philosophy and Religion); Interpretation of schizophrenia by Silvano Arieti (Sciences); The lives of a cell : notes of a biology watcher by Lewis Thomas (Sciences)
1974 Edmund Husserl; philosopher of infinite tasks by Maurice Natanson (Philosophy and Religion); Life : the unfinished experiment by S. E. Luria (Sciences)
1973 A religious history of the American people by Sydney E. Ahlstrom (Philosophy and Religion) (2d ed. (2004) here); The Serengeti lion; a study of predator-prey relations by George B. Schaller (Sciences)
1972 Righteous empire : the Protestant experience in America by Martin E. Marty (Philosophy and Religion); The blue whale by George L. Small (Sciences)
1971 Science in the British colonies of America by Raymond Phineas Stearns (Sciences)
1970 Gandhi's truth on the origins of militant nonviolence by Erik H. Erikson (Philosophy and Religion)
The awards for Science and for Philosophy and Religion were split in 1970.
1969 Death in life : survivors of Hiroshima by Robert Jay Lifton
1968 Death at an early age : the destruction of the hearts and minds of Negro children in the Boston public schools by Jonathan Kozol
1967 La vida; a Puerto Rican family in the culture of poverty--San Juan and New York by Oscar Lewis
1966 No Award
1965 God and Golem, inc. : a comment on certain points where cybernetics impinges on religion by Norbert Wiener
1964 Man-made America : chaos or control? An inquiry into certain problems of design in the urbanized landscape by Christopher Tunnard