The longlist for the National Book Awards nonfiction prize has been announced.
The books focus on different topics, but several are about U.S. history, a memoir and the Church of Scientology, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The books The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 and Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 dealt with the top of slavery in the United States. Alan Taylor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, wrote the former and James Oakes the latter.
Not all the books chosen to the longlist are about American history. Wendy Lower wrote about women in the Eastern Front during World War II, titled Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields. Lower is a consultant at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Two biographies made the list, Jill Lepore's Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin and Terry Teachout's Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington.
According to The Brandon Son, two New Yorker writers' works made the list, Going Clear by Lawrence Wright, and The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer.
LA Times notes the list will be trimmed to five for the National Book Awards, which will then be announced Oct. 16.
Longlist from USA Today:
Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes
Finding Florida: The True Story of the Sunshine State by T.D. Allman
Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami by Gretel Ehrlich
The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, a Son, and the CIA by Scott C. Johnson
Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright