Berkeley historian T.J. Stiles wins Pulitzer for ‘Custer’s Trials’
In their citation, Pulitzer jurors described “Custer’s Trials” as “a rich and surprising new telling of the journey of the iconic American soldier whose death turns out not to have been the main point of his life.”
The jurors added, In this magisterial biography, T.J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored.
The story is told by an unnamed South Vietnamese captain — a communist sympathizer — who recounts his experiences at the end of the Vietnam War and in its aftermath.
William Finnegan, a staff writer for The New Yorker, won the Pulitzer for biography for “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life,” published by Penguin Press.
In his Chronicle review, Glenn C. Altschuler wrote that the book is a “revealing, riveting and exquisitely detailed account of the life and death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the improbable terrorist mastermind, and the rise of the movement now known as the Islamic State.”
Peter Balakian, a professor at Colgate University, won the Pulitzer for poetry for “Ozone Journal” (University of Chicago Press).
The Pulitzer jurors said Balakian’s poems “bear witness to the old losses and tragedies that undergird a global age of danger and uncertainty.”