Best non-fiction book on international affairs
AWARD YEAR: 2013
AWARD NAME: The Cornelius Ryan Award 2013
RECIPIENT: Jonathan Katz
AFFILIATION: Palgrave Macmillan
HONORED WORK: The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster
A riveting first-person account of the Haitian earthquake and the failure of the international relief effort by the former Associated Press bureau chief in Port-au-Prince. Jonathan Katz impressively weaves together the dramatic events of the earthquake and its aftermath, including a United Nations-induced cholera epidemic. He highlights the self-defeating efforts of NGOs to deal with the tragedy and the impotence and corruption of Haiti’s government.
Citation for Excellence:
Gary J. Bass
Alfred A. Knopf
“The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide”