AHA Member Fredrik Logevall, John S. Knight Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in history for his book, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam, which was published in 2012 by Random House.

The book has been described as a “balanced, deeply researched history of how, as French colonial rule faltered, a succession of American leaders moved step by step down a road toward full-blown war.” Alan Brinkley, for the New York Times, characterized Logevall’s narrative as a “comprehensive history” and “powerful portrait” of the French war.

Two other historians (both members of the AHA) who figured as finalists for the prize in this category are Bernard Bailyn (Harvard University) for his book, The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America(Alfred A. Knopf); and John Fabian Witt (Yale Law School), for Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History(Free Press), which has already received the Bancroft Award.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.