The Bancroft Prizesare awarded annually by Columbia University in the City of New York and commenced in 1948.  Under the terms of the will of the late Fredric Bancroft, provision is made for two annual prizes of equal rank to be awarded to the authors of distinguished works in either or both of the following categories: American History (including biography) and Diplomacy.

Winners Bancroft Prize 1970 to present

2009 KILLING FOR COAL: AMERICA'S DEADLIEST LABOR WAR by Thomas G. Andrews, published by Harvard University Press; THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: DEATH AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, by Drew Gilpin Faust, published by Alfred A. Knopf; THE COMANCHE EMPIRE, by Pekka Hämäläinen, published by Yale University Press, 2008.

2008 THE CIGARETTE CENTURY: THE RISE, FALL, AND DEADLY PERSISTENCE OF THE PRODUCT THAT DEFINED AMERICA by Allan M. Brandt, published by Basic Books; THE POPULIST VISION, by Charles Postel, published by Oxford University Press; OUR SAVAGE NEIGHBORS: HOW INDIAN WAR TRANSFORMED EARLY AMERICA, by Peter Silver,published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.

2007 MOCKINGBIRD SONG: ECOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES OF THE SOUTH, by Jack Temple Kirby, published by The University of North Carolina Press; WILLIAM JAMES: IN THE MAELSTROM OF AMERICAN MODERNISM, by Robert D. Richardson, published by Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

2005 ISRAEL ON THE APPOMATTOX: A SOUTHERN EXPERIMENT IN BLACK FREEDOM FROM THE 1790S THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR, by Melvin Patrick Ely, published by Alfred A. Knopf; FROM JIM CROW TO CIVIL RIGHTS: THE SUPREME COURT AND THE STRUGGLE FOR RACIAL EQUALITY, by Michael J. Klarman, published by Oxford University Press; CONJECTURES OF ORDER: INTELLECTUAL LIFE AND THE AMERICAN SOUTH, 1810–1860 (Two volumes), by Michael O’Brien, published by University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

2006 DWELLING PLACE: A PLANTATION EPIC, by Erskine Clarke, published by Yale University Press; THE GLOBAL COLD WAR: THIRD WORLD INTERVENTIONS AND THE MAKING OF OUR TIMES, by Odd Arne Westad, published by Cambridge University Press; THE RISE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: JEFFERSON TO LINCOLN, by Sean Wilentz, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.

2004 IN THE PRESENCE OF MINE ENEMIES: WAR IN THE HEART OF AMERICA, 1859-1863, by Edward L. Ayers, published by W.W. Norton & Co.; A NATION UNDER OUR FEET: BLACK POLITICAL STRUGGLES IN THE RURAL SOUTH FROM SLAVERY TO THE GREAT MIGRATION, by Steven Hahn, published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; JONATHAN EDWARDS: A LIFE, by George M. Marsden, published by Yale University Press.

2003 CAPTIVES AND COUSINS: SLAVERY, KINSHIP, AND COMMUNITY IN THE SOUTHWEST BORDERLANDS, by James F. Brooks, published by the University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture; THE INDIAN SLAVE TRADE: THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH EMPIRE IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH, 1670-1717, by Alan Gallay, published by Yale University Press.

2002 RACE AND REUNION: THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICAN MEMORY by David W. Blight, published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; IN PURSUIT OF EQUITY: WOMEN, MEN, AND THE QUEST FOR ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP IN 20TH-CENTURY AMERICA by Alice Kessler-Harris, published by Oxford University Press, 2001.

2001 ROARING CAMP: THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH by Susan Lee Johnson, published by W. W. Norton & Company; THE CHIEF: THE LIFE OF WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST by David Nasaw, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.

2000 INTO THE AMERICAN WOODS: NEGOTIATORS ON THE AMERICAN FRONTIER by James H. Merrell, published by W. W. Norton & Company; EMBRACING DEFEAT: JAPAN IN THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR II by John Dower, published by W. W. Norton & Company and The New Press; THE GREAT ARIZONA ORPHAN ABDUCTION by Linda Gordon, published by Harvard University Press, 1999.

1999 MANY THOUSANDS GONE: THE FIRST TWO CENTURIES OF SLAVERY IN NORTH AMERICA by Ira Berlin, published by Harvard University Press; SLAVE COUNTERPOINT: BLACK CULTURE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHESAPEAKE AND LOW COUNTRY by Philip D. Morgan, published by University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture; THE NAME OF WAR: KING PHILIP'S WAR AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN IDENTITY by Jill Lepore, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1998.

1998 SOUTHERN CROSS: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BIBLE BELT by Christine Leigh Heyrman, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; THE CLASH: A HISTORY OF U.S.-JAPAN RELATIONS by Walter LaFeber, published by W. W. Norton & Company; THE ORIGINS OF THE URBAN CRISIS: RACE AND INEQUALITY IN POSTWAR DETROIT by Thomas J. Sugrue, published by Princeton University Press, 1997.

1997 EXPLICIT AND AUTHENTIC ACTS: AMENDING THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, 1776-1995 by David E. Kyvig, published by the University of Kansas Press; GRAND EXPECTATIONS: THE UNITED STATES, 1945-1974 by James T. Patterson, published by Oxford University Press, 1996.

1996 WILLIAM COOPER'S TOWN: POWER AND PERSUASION ON THE FRONTIER OF THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC by Alan Taylor, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; WALT WHITMAN'S AMERICA: A CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY by David S. Reynolds, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1995. 

1995 THE REFINER'S FIRE: THE MAKING OF MORMON COSMOLOGY, 1644-1844 by John L. Brooke, published by Cambridge University Press; LOCAL PEOPLE: THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN MISSISSIPPI by John Dittmer, published by University of Illinois Press, 1994.

1994 THE AGE OF FEDERALISM: THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC, 1788-1800 by Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, published by Oxford University Press; TUMULT AND SILENCE AT SECOND CREEK: AN INQUIRY INTO A CIVIL WAR SLAVE CONSPIRACY by Winthrop D. Jordan, published by Louisiana State University Press, W.E.B. Du Bois: THE BIOGRAPHY OF A RACE, 1868-1919 by David Levering Lewis, published by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1993.

1993 MARGARET FULLER: AN AMERICAN ROMANTIC LIFE; VOLUME I: THE PRIVATE YEARS by Charles Capper, published by Oxford University Press; A PREPONDERANCE OF POWER: NATIONAL SECURITY, THE TRUMAN ADMINISTRATION, AND THE COLD WAR by Melvyn P. Leffler, published by Stanford University Press, 1992.

1992 NATURE'S METROPOLIS: CHICAGO AND THE GREAT WEST by William Cronon, published by W. W. Norton & Company; THE DESTRUCTIVE WAR: WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, STONEWALL JACKSON, AND THE AMERICANS by Charles Royster, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1991.

1991 MAKING A NEW DEAL: INDUSTRIAL WORKERS IN CHICAGO, 1919-1939 by Lizabeth Cohen, published by Cambridge University Press; A MIDWIFE'S TALE: THE LIFE OF MARTHA BALLARD, BASED ON HER DIARY, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990.

1990 THE INDIANS' NEW WORLD: CATAWBAS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS FROM EUROPEAN CONTACT THROUGH THE ERA OF REMOVAL by James H. Merrell, published by University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture; DARK JOURNEY: BLACK MISSISSIPPIANS IN THE AGE OF JIM CROW by Neil R. McMillen, published by University of Illinois Press,1989.

1989 RECONSTRUCTION: AMERICA'S UNFINISHED REVOLUTION: 1863-1877 by Eric Foner, published by Harper & Row; INVENTING THE PEOPLE: THE RISE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA by Edmund S. Morgan, published by W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.

1988 THE RISE OF AMERICAN AIR POWER: THE CREATION OF ARMAGEDDON by Michael S. Sherry, published by Yale University Press; UNFREE LABOR: AMERICAN SLAVERY AND RUSSIAN SERFDOM by Peter Kolchin, published by Harvard University Press, 1987.

1987 A VIGOROUS SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE: MERCHANTS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN REVOLUTIONARY PHILADELPHIA by Thomas Doerflinger, published by University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture; ROOTS OF VIOLENCE IN BLACK PHILADELPHIA, 1860-1900 by Roger Lane, published by Harvard University Press, 1986.

1986 CRABGRASS FRONTIER: THE SUBURBANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES by Kenneth T. Jackson, published by Oxford University Press; LABOR OF LOVE, LABOR OF SORROW: BLACK WOMEN, WORK, AND THE FAMILY FROM SLAVERY TO THE PRESENT by Jacqueline Jones, published by Basic Books, Inc., 1985.

1985 THE FREE WOMEN OF PETERSBURG: STATUS AND CULTURE IN A SOUTHERN TOWN, 1784-1860 by Suzanne Lebsock, published by Norton & Co., Inc.; THE LIFE AND TIMES OF COTTON MATHER by Kenneth Silverman, published by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1984.

1984 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON: THE WIZARD OF TUSKEGEE, 1901-1915 by Louis R. Harlan, published by Oxford University Press; THE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN MEDICINE; THE RISE OF A SOVEREIGN PROFESSION AND THE MAKING OF A VAST INDUSTRY by Paul Starr, published by Basic Books, Inc., 1983.

1983 ENTERTAINING SATAN: WITCHCRAFT AND THE CULTURE OF EARLY NEW ENGLAND by John Putnam Demos, published by Oxford University Press; EUGENE V. DEBS: CITIZEN AND SOCIALIST by Nick Salvatore, published by University of Illinois Press, 1982.

1982 A PEOPLE IN REVOLUTION: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND POLITICAL SOCIETY IN NEW YORK, 1760-1790 by Edward Countryman, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press; CRADLE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS: THE FAMILY IN ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK, 1790-1865 by Mary P. Ryan, published by Cambridge University Press, 1981.

1981 WALTER LIPMANN AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY by Ronald Steel, published by Little, Brown and Company; ALICE JAMES: A BIOGRAPHY by Jean Strouse, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 1980.

1980 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, 1932-1945 by Robert Dallek, published by Oxford University Press; WOMEN AT WORK: THE TRANSFORMATION OF WORK AND COMMUNITY IN LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, 1826-1860 by Thomas Dublin, published by Columbia University Press; DUST BOWL: THE SOUTHERN PLAINS IN THE 1930s by Donald Worster, published by Oxford University Press, 1979.

1979 ALLIES OF A KIND: THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN, AND THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN, 1941-1945 by Christopher Thorne, published by Oxford University Press; ROCKDALE: THE GROWTH OF AN AMERICAN VILLAGE IN THE EARLY INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION by Anthony F. C. Wallace, published by Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1978.

1978 THE VISIBLE HAND: THE MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION IN AMERICAN BUSINESS by Alfred D. Chandler Jr., published by Harvard University Press; THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN LAW, 1780-1860 by Morton J. Horwitz, published by Harvard University Press, 1977.

1977 CLASS AND COMMUNITY: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN LYNN by Alan Dawley, published by Harvard University Press; THE MINUTEMEN AND THEIR WORLD by Robert A. Gross, published by Hill and Wang; SLAVE POPULATION AND ECONOMY IN JAMAICA, 1807-1834 by Barry W. Higman, published by Cambridge University Press, 1976.

1976 THE PROBLEM OF SLAVERY IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION, 1770-1823 by David Brion Davis, published by Cornell University Press; EDITH WHARTON: A BIOGRAPHY by R. W. B. Lewis, published by Harper & Row, 1975.

1975 TIME ON THE CROSS: THE ECONOMICS OF AMERICAN NEGRO SLAVERY and TIME ON THE CROSS: EVIDENCE AND METHODS--A SUPPLEMENT by Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman, published by Little, Brown and Company; DETERRENCE IN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: THEORY AND PRACTICE by Alexander L. George and Richard Smoke, published by Columbia University Press; ROLL, JORDAN, ROLL by Eugene Genovese, published by Pantheon Books, Inc., 1974.

1974 FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER: HISTORIAN, SCHOLAR, TEACHER by Ray Allen Billington, published by Oxford University Press; THE DEVIL AND JOHN FOSTER DULLES by Townsend Hoopes, published by Atlantic, Little, Brown and Company; THE OTHER BOSTONIANS: POVERTY AND PROGRESS IN THE AMERICAN METROPOLIS, 1880-1970 by Stephan Thernstrom, published by Harvard University Press, 1973.

1973 FIRE IN THE LAKE: THE VIETNAMESE AND THE AMERICANS IN VIETNAM by Frances FitzGerald, published by Atlantic, Little, Brown and Company; THE UNITED STATES AND THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR by John Lewis Gaddis, published by Columbia University Press; BOOKER T. WASHINGTON by Louis R. Harlan, published by Oxford University Press, 1972.

1972 NEITHER BLACK NOR WHITE by Carl N. Degler, published by The Macmillan Company; THE MATHERS: THREE GENERATIONS OF PURITAN INTELLECTUALS, 1596-1728 by Robert Middlekauff, published by Oxford University Press; THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF AMERICA: THE NORTHERN VOYAGES by Samuel Eliot Morison, published by Oxford University Press, 1971.

1971 THE IMAGE EMPIRE: A HISTORY OF BROADCASTING IN THE UNITED STATES, VOLUME III--FROM 1953 by Erik Barnouw, published by Oxford University Press.; BIRTH CONTROL IN AMERICA: THE CAREER OF MARGARET SANGER by David M. Kennedy, published by Yale University Press; ANDREW CARNEGIE by Joseph Frazier Wall, published by Oxford University Press, 1970.

1970 CHARLES WILSON PEALE by Charles Coleman Sellers, published by Charles Scribner's Sons; THE CREATION OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, 1776-1787 by Gordon S. Wood, published by University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture; SCOTTSBORO: A TRAGEDY OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH by Dan T. Carter, published by Louisiana State University Press, 1969.