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.

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 (ΦΒΚ) 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, Henry David Thoreau: A Life, Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia, The Blood of Emmett Till and Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder are featured in the Phi Beta Kappa publication, The Key Reporter.

The Society announced the winners October 1, 2018.