[Pulitzer in History]

Nominated as finalists in this category were: "Empires, Nations & Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860," by Anne F. Hyde (University of Nebraska Press), a fresh work tracing how people created families and conducted business in a vast, fur-trading region newly part of an expanding United States; "The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden," by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (Ballantine Books), a painstaking look at a catastrophic act of terrorism and the nagging questions that have swirled around it; and "Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America," by Richard White (W.W. Norton & Company), a myth-shattering book that shows how reckless but influential railroad corporations in the late 19th century often profited by failure as well as success.

[Pulitzer in Biography]

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution," by Mary Gabriel (Little, Brown and Company), an enlightening, richly researched book on the saga of Marx, his family and the ideas and historical events they helped to shape; and "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," by the late Manning Marable (Viking), an exploration of the legendary life and provocative views of one of the most significant African-Americans in U.S. history, a work that separates fact from fiction and blends the heroic and tragic. (Moved by the Board to the History category.)