Washington Institute Book Prize: Announcement of 2009 Winners

A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, Allis and Ronald Radosh's suspenseful, meticulously documented account of Harry S. Truman's controversial decision to recognize the new state of Israel, has won the Gold Prize -- including a cash award of $30,000 -- in The Washington Institute's 2009 Book Prize competition, the research institution announced on October 17, 2009.

The Book Prize, established to highlight new nonfiction books on the Middle East, is among the world's most lucrative literary awards. Winners were announced before an audience of more than 300 journalists, diplomats, scholars, and members of the Institute's Board of Trustees at the organization's annual Weinberg Founders Conference in Leesburg, Virginia. Institute executive director Robert Satloff announced the awards, following introductory remarks by Institute trustee Lorraine Abramson and Book Prize adminstrator and Institute Wexler-Fromer fellow Martin Kramer.

The Institute also awarded the 2009 Silver Prize ($15,000) to Ali A. Allawi, a former defense and finance minister in postwar Iraq, for his The Crisis of Islamic Civilization, a compelling insider's plea for the resurgence of Islam as a civilizing force that can meet the challenges of modernity and globalization. The Bronze Prize ($5,000) recipient is Amb. Martin Indyk for Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East, an honest and personal account of Middle East statecraft during the Clinton administration.

Winners were chosen by a three-person jury that included Eliot Cohen, former State Department official and professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies; Kenneth Stein, director of Emory University's Institute for the Study of Modern Israel; and Lally Weymouth, senior editor of Newsweek magazine.

Allis Radosh has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and the City University of New York, and served as a program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Ronald Radosh, professor emeritus of history at the City University of New York and adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is the author or coauthor of fourteen books, including The Rosenberg File. He has written for the New Republic, National Review, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. A Safe Haven is the second book they have written together. They live in Martinsburg, West Virginia.