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

These award categories ended in 1983.

1983    "Subtle is the Lord-- " : the science and the life of Albert Einstein by Abraham Pais (Science); The mathematical experience by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh (Science)
1982    Lucy, the beginnings of humankind by Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey (Science); Taking the quantum leap : the new physics for nonscientists by Fred Alan Wolf (Science)
1981    The panda's thumb : more reflections in natural history by Stephen Jay Gould (Science); The medusa and the snail : more notes of a biology watcher by Lewis Thomas (Science)
1980    The gnostic gospels by Elaine Pagels (R/I); A severe mercy by Sheldon Vanauken (R/I); Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter (Science); The dancing wu li masters : an overview of the new physics by Gary Zukav (Science)

Awards for Sciences and for Philosophy and Religion were discontinued in 1975.  They reappeared in 1980 as Religion/Inspiration and Science, but the Religion/Inspiration awards were discontinued after 1980.

1975     Anarchy, state, and utopia by Robert Nozick (Philosophy and Religion); Interpretation of schizophrenia by Silvano Arieti (Sciences); The lives of a cell : notes of a biology watcher by Lewis Thomas (Sciences)
1974     Edmund Husserl; philosopher of infinite tasks by Maurice Natanson (Philosophy and Religion); Life : the unfinished experiment by S. E. Luria (Sciences)
1973     A religious history of the American people by Sydney E. Ahlstrom (Philosophy and Religion) (the link is to the 2d ed. of 2004); The Serengeti lion; a study of predator-prey relations by George B. Schaller (Sciences)
1972     Righteous empire : the Protestant experience in America by Martin E. Marty (Philosophy and Religion); The blue whale by George L. Small (Sciences)
1971     Science in the British colonies of America by Raymond Phineas Stearns (Sciences)
1970     Gandhi's truth on the origins of militant nonviolence by Erik H. Erikson (Philosophy and Religion)

The awards for Science and for Philosophy and Religion were split in 1970.

1969     Death in life : survivors of Hiroshima by Robert Jay Lifton
1968     Death at an early age : the destruction of the hearts and minds of Negro children in the Boston public schools by Jonathan Kozol
1967     La vida; a Puerto Rican family in the culture of poverty--San Juan and New York  by Oscar Lewis
1966     No Award
1965     God and Golem, inc. : a comment on certain points where cybernetics impinges on religion by Norbert Wiener
1964     Man-made America : chaos or control?  An inquiry into certain problems of design in the urbanized landscape by Christopher Tunnard