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2021
Winner
Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia by Joshua Yaffa
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Shortlist
Labours of Love - The Crisis of Care by Madeleine Bunting
Eat the Buddha - The Story of Modern Tibet Through the People of One Town by Barbara Demick
Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb
African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele
English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks
The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery by Michael Taylor

Longlist
Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends by Anne Applebaum
The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination by Richard Evans
Why the Germans Do it Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country by John Kampfner
History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America by Bruno Macaes
How Spies Think: 10 Lessons in Intelligence by David Omand
Recollections of My Non-Existence by Rebecca Solnit
2020
Winner
Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy

Shortlist
Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War by Tim Bouverie
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment by Amelia Gentleman
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
Margaret Thatcher: Volume 3: Herself Alone by Charles Moore
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

Longlist
Follow Me, Akhi: the Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani
Maoism : A Global History by Julia Lovell
The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 by Dorian Lynskey
Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni
Kremlin Winter: Russia and the Second Coming of Vladimir Putin by Robert Service
2019
Winner
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Shortlist
Moneyland by Oliver Bullough
The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu
Heimat: A German Family Album by Nora Krug
The Growth Delusion by David Pilling
Nightmarch: Among India’s Revolutionary Guerrillas by Alpa Shah

Longlist
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of the Empire by Akala
The People vs Tech by Jamie Bartlett
Hired by James Bloodworth
Bad Girls by Caitlin Davies
Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman
In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum
A Certain Idea of France by Julian Jackson
American Overdose by Chris McGreal
Our Boys by Helen Parr

Orwell Prize for Books

2018
Winner
Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey

Shortlist
The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times by Christopher de Bellaigue
Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of our Gendered Minds by Cordelia Fine
What You Did Not Tell by Mark Mazower
Winter by Ali Smith
Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain by Clair Wills

Longlist
Why I ‘m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Threads from the Refugee Crisis by Kate Evans
The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart
Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra
Bitch Doctrine by Laurie Penny
Bread for All: The Origins of the Welfare State by Chris Renwick
2017
Winner
Citizen Clem by John Bew

Shortlist
The Seven by Ruth Dudley Edwards
All Out War by Tim Shipman
Island Story: Journeys Around Unfamiliar Britain by JD Taylor
And the Sun Shines Now: How Hillsborough and the Premier League Changed Britain by Adrian Tempany
Another Day In The Death Of America by Gary Younge

Longlist
The Power by Naomi Alderman
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between by Hisham Matar
Black And British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga
The Life Project by Helen Pearson
Easternisation by Gideon Rachman
The Marches by Rory Stewart
Enough Said by Mark Thompson
Cut by Hibo Wardere & Anna Wharton
2016
Winner
The Invention of Russia by Arkady Ostrovsky

Shortlist
The New Threat from Islamic Militancy by Jason Burke
Other People’s Money by John Kay
The Tears of the Rajas by Ferdinand Mount
The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq by Emma Sky
Circling the Square by Wendell Steavenson

Longlist
Promised you a Miracle: UK80 – 82 by Andy Beckett
The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding
How the French Think by Sudhir Hazareesingh
More Human by Steve Human
Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter
The Silo Effect by Gillian Tett
2015
Winner
Private Island: Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else by James Meek

Shortlist
Capital: The Eruption of Delhi by Rana Dasgupta
In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies
Hack Attack by Nick Davies
Modernity Britain: Opening the Box by David Kynaston
The People's Republic of Amnesia by Louisa Lim

Longlist
The Dark Net by Jamie Bartlett
Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life by John Campbell
Revolt on the Right by Robert Ford & Matthew Goodwin
In the Light of What we Know by Zia Haider Rahman
Mammon's Kingdom: An Essay on Britain, Now by David Marquand
In the Name of the People: Angola's Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson
2014
Winner
This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood by Alan Johnson

Shortlist
Coolie Woman by Gaiutra Bahadur
The Tragedy of Liberation by Frank Dikotter
The World’s Most Dangerous Place by James Fergusson
The British Dream by David Goodhart
Margaret Thatcher: Volume 1: Not for Turning by Charles Moore

Longlist
Sex and the Citadel by Shereen El Feki
The General by Ahmed Errachidi
Kith: the Riddle of the Childscape by Jay Griffiths
Red Fortress: The Secret Heart of Russia’s History by Catherine Merridale
Edmund Burke: Philosopher, Politician, Prophet by Jesse Norman
The Confidence Trap by David Runciman
One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag-Montefiore
The XX Factor by Alison Wolf
2013
Winner
A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa by AT Williams

Shortlist
Burying the Typewriter by Carmen Bugan
On the Front Line by Marie Colvin
Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt by Richard Holloway
From the Ruins of the Empire by Pankaj Mishra
Occupation Diaries by Raja Shehadeh
Injustice by Clive Stafford Smith

Longlist
Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland
Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre
El Narco by Ioan Grillo
The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston
Bloody Nasty People by Daniel Trilling
2012
Winner
Dead Men Risen by Toby Harnden

Shortlist
The Beautiful and the Damned: Life in the New India by Siddhartha Deb
Dark Market: CyberThieves, CyberCops and You by Misha Glenny
Hood Rat by Gavin Knight
The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell
People Who Eat Darkness: the Fate of Lucie Blackman by Richard Lloyd Parry

Longlist
Afgansty by Rodric Braithwaite
Cables from Kabul by Sherard Cowper-Coles
The Conservatives: A History by Robin Harris
Arguably by Christopher Hitchens
Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven
A Train in Winter: A Story of Resistance, Friendship and Survival by Caroline Moorehead
Bloody Sunday: Truths, Lies and The Saville Inquiry by Douglas Murray
Just Boris: The Irresistible Rise of a Political Celebrity by Sonia Purnell
The Price of Civilization by Jeffrey Sachs
To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World by Lucy Siegle
Adventures in the Orgasmatron: Wilhelm Reich and the Invention of Sex by Christopher Turner
Unfair Trade by Conor Woodman
2011
Winner
The Rule of Law by Tom Bingham

Shortlist
Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
Death to the Dictator! by Afsaneh Moqadam
Supermac: The Life of Harold MacMillan by DR Thorpe

Longlist
Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit by Tim Butcher
23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
Ernest Gellner by John A Hall
A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain by Owen Hatherley
We Are a Muslim, Please by Zaiba Malik
Why the West Rules for Now by Ian Morris
Decline and Fall by Chris Mullin
Enough is Enough by Fintan O'Toole
Whatever It Takes: The Real Story of Gordon Brown and New Labour by Steve Richards
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
Living Dolls by Natasha Walter
2010
Winner
Keeper by Andrea Gillies

Shortlist
Rebel Land: Among Turkey’s Forgotten Peoples by Christopher de Bellaigue
An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah
Freedom For Sale: How We Made Money and Lost Our Liberty by John Kampfner
From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy by Kenan Malik
It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower by Michela Wrong

Longlist
When the Lights Went Out by Andy Beckett
Harare North by Brian Chikwava
Waiting for the Etonians by Nick Cohen
Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing and the Families’ Pursuit of Justice by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Last Chance by David Gardner
The Frock-Coated Communist by Tristram Hunt
Bluebird: A Memoir by Vesna Maric
Ship of Fools by Fintan O'Toole
A Swamp Full of Dollars by Michael Peel
The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler
The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
What Price Liberty? by Ben Wilson
2009
Winner
Fishing in Utopia: Sweden & The Future That Disappeared by Andrew Brown

Shortlist
Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century by Tony Judt
Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love and War by Owen Matthews
Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour by Hsiao-Hung Pai
Descent into Chaos: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the threat to global security by Ahmed Rashid
The White War: Life & Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson

Longlist
Muqtada al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq by Patrick Cockburn
Flat Earth News: An Award-winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media by Nick Davies
Journey to Nowhere: One Woman Looks for the Promised Land by Eva Figes
The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa’s Most Wanted by Matthew Green
Hell’s Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys
A Doctor in Galilee: The Life and Struggle of a Palestinian in Israel by Hatim Kanaaneh
A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe by Mark Mazower
Political Hypocrisy: The Mask of Power, from Hobbes to Orwell and Beyond by David Runciman
Torture Team: Uncovering war crimes in the land of the free by Philippe Sands
The Refuge and the Fortress: Britain and the Flight from Tyranny by Jeremy Seabrook
Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II by AN Wilson
2008
Winner
Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh

Shortlist
What’s Left? How The Left Lost Its Way by Nick Cohen
Wild: An Elemental Journey by Jay Griffiths
William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner by William Hague
The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left by Ed Husain
Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka
Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay and the Secret Prisons by Clive Stafford Smith

Longlist
Kipling Sahib: India and the Making of Rudyard Kipling 1865-1900 by Charles Allen
The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia by Orlando Figes
The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan by Yasmin Khan
Age of Austerity 1945-51 by David Kynaston
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet by Mark Lynas
A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr
Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1 by Timothy Phillips
Friendship and Betrayal: Ambition and the Limits of Loyalty by Graham Stewart
2007
Winner
Having It So Good: Britain in the Fifties by Peter Hennessy

Shortlist
Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution by Hugh Brogan
Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family and Fatherland by Carmen Callil
Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts by Simon Jenkins
Lions, Donkeys And Dinosaurs: Waste and Blundering in the Military by Lewis Page
Occupational Hazards: My Time Governing in Iraq by Rory Stewart
2006
Winner
Moses, Citizen and Me by Delia Jarrett-Macauley

Shortlist
Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in England and Africa by Ekow Eshun
Urban Grimshaw and The Shed Crew by Bernard Hare
Frontline: The True Story of the British Mavericks Who Changed the Face of War Reporting by David Loyn
The Secret of Bryn Estyn: The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt by Richard Webster
I Didn’t Do It For You: How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation by Michela Wrong
2005
Winner
The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class by Michael Collins

Shortlist
Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism by Ian Buruma & Avishai Margalit
Wartime: Britain 1939-1945 by Juliet Gardiner
Free World by Timothy Garton Ash
Just Law by Helena Kennedy
My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism by Andrew Marr
2004
Winner
The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century by Robert Cooper

Shortlist
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Margaret Thatcher – Volume Two: The Iron Lady by John Campbell
Rising ’44: The Battle For Warsaw by Norman Davies
Supping with the Devils: Political Journalism from Thatcher to Blair by Hugo Young
2003
Winner
Hoo-Hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism 1991-2001 by Francis Wheen

Shortlist
Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland by Neal Ascherson
Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation 1940-1945 by Robert Gildea
Chance Witness by Matthew Parris
London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25 by Iain Sinclair
Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000 by Richard Weight
2002
Winner
Anthony Blunt: His Lives by Miranda Carter

Shortlist
The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making it Up in Ireland by Roy Foster​
2001
Winner
Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond by Michael Ignatieff

2000
Winner
The Case of Stephen Lawrence by Brian Cathcart

1999
Winner
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life by DM Thomas

1998
Winner
Jennie Lee: A Life by Patricia Hollis

1997
Winner
Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin

1996
Winner
Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey by Fergal Keane

1995
Winner
In Search of a State: Catholics in Northern Ireland by Fionnuala O'Connor

1994
Winner
The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence by Anatol Lieven