The Lionel Gelber Prize is a literary award for English non-fiction books on foreign policy. Founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber, the prize awards "the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues." A prize of is awarded to the winner. The award is presented annually by the Lionel Gelber Foundation, in partnership with '' Foreign Policy'' magazine and the

Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy The Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto is an interdisciplinary academic centre with various research and educational programs committed to the field of globalization. Located in Toronto, Ontario, it offers ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

. Recipients are judged by a jury panel of experts from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The award has been described by ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' as "the world's most important award for non-fiction". Past winners have included

Lawrence Wright Lawrence Wright (born August 2, 1947) is an American writer and journalist, who is a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. Wright is best known as th ...

, Jonathan Spence,

David McCullough David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States ...

Kanan Makiya Kanan Makiya (born 1949) is an Iraqi-American academic and professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University. He gained international attention with ''Republic of Fear'' (1989), a best-selling book, after Saddam Hussein's in ...

Michael Ignatieff Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...

, Eric Hobsbawm, Robert Kinloch Massie,

Adam Hochschild Adam Hochschild (; born October 5, 1942) is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer. His best-known works include '' King Leopold's Ghost'' (1998), '' To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918'' (2011), ''Bu ...

(two time winner),

Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky Robert Jacob Alexander, Baron Skidelsky, (born 25 April 1939) is a British economic historian. He is the author of a three-volume award-winning biography of British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946). Skidelsky read history at Jesus C ...

Walter Russell Mead Walter Russell Mead (born June 12, 1952) is an American academic. He is the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and taught American foreign policy at Yale University. He was also the editor-at-large of ...

Chrystia Freeland Christina Alexandra Freeland (born August 2, 1968) is a Canadian politician serving as the tenth and current deputy prime minister of Canada since 2019 and the minister of finance since 2020. A member of the Liberal Party, Freeland represent ...

, and

Steve Coll Steve Coll (born October 8, 1958) is an American journalist, academic and executive. He is currently the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he is also the Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism. A staff writer f ...

List of award winners

* 1990: ''

The Search for Modern China ''The Search for Modern China'' is a 1990 non-fiction book by Jonathan Spence, published by Century Hutchinson and W. W. Norton & Company. It covers the period 1600 to 1989. According to Spence, the goal was to explain how Modern China was creat ...

'' by Jonathan D. Spence. * 1991: ''Code of Peace: Ethics and Security in the World of Warlord States'' by Dorothy V. Jones. * 1992: '' Truman'' by

. * 1993: ''Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World'' by

. * 1994: ''Blood and Belonging: Journeys Into the New Nationalism'' by

. * 1995: '' Age of Extremes: The Short 20th Century'' by Eric Hobsbawm. * 1996: ''Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev'' by Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov * 1997: ''Aftermath: The Remnants of War'' by Donovan Webster. * 1998: ''Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa In the Apartheid Years'' by Robert Kinloch Massie. * 1999: '' King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism In Colonial Africa'' by

. * 2000: '' A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History'' by

Patrick Tyler Patrick E. Tyler is an author and formerly chief correspondent for ''The New York Times''.CORRESPONDENT BIOGRAPHY. https://www.nytimes.com/ref/readersopinions/patrick-tyler-bio.html Readers' Opinions ''Accessed on April 25, 2008'' He is the au ...

. * 2001: ''John Maynard Keynes, Fighting for Britain 1937-1946'' by Lord Robert Skidelsky. * 2002: ''Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World'' by

. * 2003: ''America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy'' by

Ivo H. Daalder Ivo H. Daalder (born March 2, 1960 in The Hague, Netherlands),"Ivo H. Daalder." Marquis Who's Who TM. ''Marquis Who's Who'', 2007. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/B ...

and James M. Lindsay * 2004: '' Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001'' by

. * 2006: '' Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves'' by

. * 2007: '' The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11'' by

. * 2008: '' The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It'' by

Paul Collier Sir Paul Collier, (born 23 April 1949) is a British development economist who serves as the Professor of Economics and Public Policy in the Blavatnik School of Government and the director of the International Growth Centre. He currently is a ...

. * 2009: ''A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East'' by Sir Lawrence Freedman. * 2010: ''The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China'' by Jay Taylor. * 2011: ''Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America'' by Shelagh Grant. * 2012: ''

Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China ''Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China'' is a 2011 biography about Deng Xiaoping written by Ezra Vogel and published by The Belknap Press/Harvard University Press. Translations In May 2012 the Chinese University Press of Hong Kong publi ...

'' by

Ezra Vogel Ezra Feivel Vogel (; July 11, 1930 — December 20, 2020 ) was an American sociologist who wrote prolifically on modern Japan, China, and Korea, and worked both in academia and the public sphere. He was Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Scie ...

. * 2013: '' Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else'' by

. * 2014: '' The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide'' by Gary J. Bass. * 2015: ''The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union'' by

Serhii Plokhy Serhii Plokhy, or Plokhii ( uk, Сергій Миколайович Плохій, russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Пло́хий; born 23 May 1957) is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, whe ...

* 2016: ''Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President, and the Rise of the Drone'' by Scott Shane * 2017: ''A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS'' by Robert F. Worth published by

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

* 2018: '' Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine'' by

Anne Applebaum Anne Elizabeth Applebaum (born July 25, 1964) is an American journalist and historian. She has written extensively about the history of Communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She has worked at ''The Econ ...

published by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase ...

* 2019: ''Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World'' by

Adam Tooze John Adam Tooze (born 1967) is an English historian who is a professor at Columbia University, Director of the European Institute and nonresident scholar at Carnegie Europe. Previously, he was Reader in Twentieth-Century History at the Universi ...

published by

* 2020: ''The Light that Failed: A Reckoning'' by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes * 2021: ''Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace'' by Matthew C. Klein and

Michael Pettis Michael Pettis (born June 16, 1958) is an American professor of finance at Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing and a nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was founder and co-o ...

* 2022: '' The American War in Afghanistan: A History'' by

Carter Malkasian Carter Malkasian (born 1975) is a historian and former adviser to American military commanders in Afghanistan. Career Malkasian earned a doctorate in military history from the University of Oxford, where he studied under Robert O'Neill. After com ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Gelber Prize - Munk School of Global AffairsThe Lionel Gelber Prize on Twitter
Canadian non-fiction literary awards Political book awards Awards established in 1989 1989 establishments in Canada