For more information about the National Book Award, click here.

1980     Julia Child & more company by Julia Child; The culture of narcissism : American life in an age of diminishing expectations by Christopher Lasch

The title of the award changed to "Current Interest" in 1980, then ceased.

1979     The snow leopard by Peter Matthiessen
1978     Winners and losers : battles, retreats, gains, losses, and ruins from a long war by Gloria Emerson
1977     The uses of enchantment : the meaning and importance of fairy tales by Bruno Bettelheim

The title of the award changed to "Contemporary Thought" in 1977.

1976     Passage to Ararat by Michael J. Arlen
1975     All God's dangers : the life of Nate Shaw [compiled by] Theodore Rosengarten
1974     The briar patch : the people of the state of New York v. Lumumba Shakur et al by Murray Kempton
1973     Fire in the lake : the Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald
1972     The Last whole earth catalog : access to tools