The Phi Beta Kappa Society is delighted to announce the
2018 Book Awards Short List


The ΦΒΚ Book Awards are administered in the following three, non-fiction categories:

The Christian Gauss Award:  Celebrates outstanding books in the field of literary scholarship or criticism.
The Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science:  Recognizes superior books by scientists written to illuminate aspects of science for a broad readership.
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award:  Honors scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.

Finalists and award-winning authors are selected by a panel of experts in each category. Award-winning authors will each receive a $10,000 prize at a celebratory dinner event in Washington, D.C. in December 2018. For more information or to attend this dinner please email Jen Horneman. 

 

 

The Christian Gauss Award 



 

At Home in the World 
by Maria DiBattista and Deborah Epstein Nord (ΦΒΚ)
Princeton University Press
 


 



Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast
by Megan Marshall (ΦΒΚ)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt


 

Henry David Thoreau: A Life 
by Laura Dassow Walls
University of Chicago Press

 


 



Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History 
by Joseph North
Harvard University Press

 


 		  


The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story 
by Edwidge Danticat (ΦΒΚ)
Greywolf Press



The Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science 

 


 

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power
to Control Evolution 
by Jennifer A. Doudna
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
 


 



Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst 
by Robert Sapolsky (ΦΒΚ)
Penguin Press


 

Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution 
by Jonathan Losos
Riverhead Books

 


 



Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing
a Backbone 
by Juli Berwald
Riverhead Books
 


 		  


Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams 
by Matthew Walker
Scribner



The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award 


 


 

Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919
by Mike Wallace
Oxford University Press

 


 



Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder  
by Caroline Fraser (ΦΒΚ)
Metropolitian Books


 

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia 
by Steven Stoll (ΦΒΚ)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux


 


 



The Blood of Emmett Till 
by Timothy B. Tyson
Simon & Schuster
 


 		  


The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith,
and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought 
by Dennis C. Rasmussen (ΦΒΚ)
Princeton University Press

 

Reviews of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast are featured in the Phi Beta Kappa magazine, The American Scholar.

Reviews of At Home in the World, Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast, Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History, The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story, A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia, The Blood of Emmett Till are featured in the Phi Beta Kappa publication, The Key Reporter.

 

The Society will announce the winners October 1, 2018.