Winners
Political & Current Events
2024 FINALISTS - POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS
See below for the list of 2024 finalists in the POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS category, for books with a copyright date of 2023.
The Codex of the Endangered Species Act, Volume I: The First Fifty Years
2024 Finalist
Author: Lowell E. Baier with Christopher E. Segal
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9781538112076
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is the zenith of environmental laws, representing the highest aspirations of the Green Revolution. The Codex is its definitive 50-year history. It offers a view of what flexible, collaborative, and successful conservation can be, if we choose to overcome politics and work collaboratively.
Crossing Borders: The Search for Dignity in Palestine
2024 Finalist
Author: Christa Bruhn
Publisher: Little Creek Press
ISBN: 9781955656528
Christa’s journey to Jerusalem and Gaza at the tail end of the Cold War becomes a lifetime pursuit to make a difference in a land two peoples call home. Christa poses thought-provoking questions while exploring current and historic challenges Palestinians face living in the shadow of the State of Israel.
Is Social Justice Just?
2024 Finalist
Editors: Robert M. Whaples, Michael C. Munger, and Christopher J. Coyne
Publisher: The Independent Institute
ISBN: 9781598133530
Armed with ample evidence from real-world experiences, lessons from history, the wisdom of the classics, modern philosophers, and even the teachings of the world religions, the contributors of Is Social Justice Just? illuminate the central role of the individual in achieving justice in all its aspects.
2023 WINNERS - POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS
See below for the list of 2023 winners in the POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS category, for books with a copyright date of 2022.
Ethically Challenged: Private Equity Storms U.S. Health Care
2023 Gold Winner
Author: Laura Katz Olson
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 978-1-4214-4285-3
The first book to address private equity and healthcare, Ethically Challenged: Private Equity Storms U.S. Health Care raises the curtain on an industry notorious for its secrecy, exposing the dark side of its maneuvers. The volume tackles the dynamics that enable financial engineering and other predatory private equity tactics, and the consequences for healthcare businesses, clients, taxpayers, front line workers and society at large.
70 Ads to Save the World: An Illustrated Memoir of Social Change
2023 Silver Winner
Author: Jerry Mander
Publisher: Synergetic Press
ISBN: 978-0907791812
70 Ads to Save the World offers a detailed and entertaining account of the groundbreaking work of advertising visionary, Jerry Mander. Chronicling his evolution from corporate advertising to non-profit and political advertising work, Mander reflects on the origin stories of his anti-establishment campaigns for environmental and social justice issues which remain relevant today.
Highway Heist: America's Crumbling Infrastructure and the Road Forward
2023 Silver Winner
Author: James T. Bennett
Publisher: Independent Institute
ISBN: 978-1-59813-344-8
In this eye-opening book, Professor James Bennett guides readers through centuries of one of the most underrated yet widely used aspects of American life—roads. Relying on history and economic data—and with a humorous and oftentimes sharp tongue—Bennett explains how important America’s highways and byways have been to everything from policymaking to everyday life.
2022 WINNERS - POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS
See below for the list of 2022 winners in the POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS category, for books with a copyright date of 2021.
Free Speech and Why You Should Give a Damn
2022 Gold Winner
Authors: by Jonathan Zimmerman, cartoons by Signe Wilkinson
Publisher: New Idea Press, A City of Light Publishing imprint
ISBN: 978-1-952536-10-6
How was freedom of speech established? Who has denounced it and who has risen to its defense? This brief but bracing book peppered with poignant editorial cartoons tells the story of free speech in America from John Adams to COVID, revealing why the greatest danger to America and democracy is not speech but censorship.
Beyond Carbon Neutral: How We Fix the Climate Crisis Now
2022 Silver Winner
Author: Samuel M. Goodman, PhD
Publisher: New Degree Press
ISBN: 9781636768236
Beyond Carbon Neutral presents a coherent strategy for reversing climate change. Dr. Goodman details how to build a renewable power grid with today’s technology, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere permanently, and marshal societal institutions to accomplish such a massive transition in short order, showing that there is still hope.
The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?
2022 Silver Winner
Author: Stephen P. Halbrook
Publisher: Bombardier for the Independent Institute
ISBN: 978-1-63758-284-8
The Right to Bear Arms is the authoritative history and legal analysis of the right to bear arms from its origins in England through American colonial times, the American Revolution, the Constitution’s ratification debates, and the antebellum and postbellum periods, including enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment and up through today.
2021 WINNERS - POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS
See below for the list of 2021 winners in the POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS category, for books with a copyright date of 2020. Click here to watch the Gold and Silver winner speeches.
Icons & Symbols of the Borderland: Art from the US-Mexico Crossroads
2021 Gold Winner
Author: Diana Molina
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-7643-5893-7
View the US-Mexico borderland saga through the eyes of artists who’ve lived it. More than 100 artworks represent a variety of mediums, from large paintings to mixed-media collage, neon, photography, and sculpture. The images explore the region’s animal and plant ecosystems, food and religious culture, and history.
The Vanishing Trial: The Era of Courtroom Performers and the Perils of Its Passing
2021 Silver Winner
Author: Robert Katzberg
Publisher: Mascot Books
ISBN: 978-1-64543-218-0
The Vanishing Trial vividly recreates the world of criminal trials that once was but is no more. Per famed defense lawyer Mark Geragos, “Katzberg has done a masterful job in exposing a dirty little secret of the criminal justice system: the imminent extinction of the jury trial.”
With Liberty and Justice for Some: The Bible, the Constitution, and Racism in America
2021 Silver Winner
Author: Susan K. Williams Smith
Publisher: Judson Press
ISBN: 978-0-8170-1813-9
With Liberty and Justice for Some exposes America’s exploitation of the Constitution and Bible in the service of white supremacy and challenges the faithful to redeem the dream of equality for all.
2020 WINNERS - POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS
See below for the list of 2020 winners in the POLITICAL & CURRENT EVENTS category, for books with a copyright date of 2019.
Savvy: Navigating Fake Companies, Fake Leaders, and Fake News in the Post-Trust Era
2020 Gold Winner
Authors: Shiv B. Singh and Rohini Luthra, Ph.D.
Publisher: Ideapress Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-940858-72-2
How will we decide who to trust in a world of manipulated media? This book explores bias, deception and how to be believable in the post-trust era.
Why Do They Hate Us? Making Peace with the Muslim World
2020 Silver Winner
Author: Steve Slocum
Publisher: Top Reads Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9986838-6-7
“An exploration of Islamic beliefs and history that aims to challenge American Islamophobia.… A clear, concise, and thoughtful introduction to Islam.” --Kirkus starred review
Window Seat on the World: My Travels with the Secretary of State
2020 Silver Winner
Author: Glen Johnson
Publisher: Disruption Books
ISBN: 978-1-63331-039-1
Here is an all-access look at life inside the nation’s first cabinet agency: the complexity of State Department protocols, the grueling schedules, and the delicacy of engagement with world leaders and foreign cultures.
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