About the Prize
The D.B. Hardeman Prize is awarded for the best book on the U.S. Congress, from the fields of biography, history, journalism, and political science. Mr. Hardeman, a dedicated student of and avid collector of books about the Congress, was a long-time assistant to legendary Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn of Texas. Submissions are judged on the basis of five criteria: (1) contribution to scholarship, (2) contribution to the public's understanding of Congress, (3) literary craftsmanship, (4) originality, and (5) depth of research.
The members of the national selection committee include: Senator Tom Daschle; Lee Hamilton, director of The Center on Congress; Thomas Mann of The Brookings Institution; Leslie Sanchez of Impacto Group; Clay Smith of Kirkus Media; Jeremi Suri of The University of Texas at Austin; and Jason Casellas and Nancy Beck Young of The University of Houston. Previous winners include Robert Caro, David Oshinsky, and Frances Lee.
If you are interested in submitting a title for consideration for the next Hardeman Prize, please contact Samantha Stone, Chief Operating Officer, at samantha@lbjfoundation.org or call (512) 721-0263.
Meet the 2021 Prize Recipient
The LBJ Foundation's 32nd D.B. Hardeman Prize winner for the best book on the U.S. Congress is "Southern Nation: Congress and White Supremacy after Reconstruction” by David A. Bateman, Ira Katznelson, and John S. Lapinski. Southern Nation examines how southern members of Congress shaped national public policy and American institutions from Reconstruction to the New Deal—and along the way remade the region and the nation in their own image.
The presentation was hosted virtually by the LBJ School of Public Affairs' Washington Center on Thursday, May 27, 2021. The event featured a conversation moderated by Peniel Joseph of the LBJ School of Public Affairs with Drs. Bateman, Katznelson, and Lapinski.
Recipients of the D. B. Hardeman Prize
1980 Richard F. Fenno, Jr.
Home Style: House Members in Their Districts, Little, Brown and Company
1982 Allen Schick
Congress and Money: Budgeting, Spending and Taxing, The Urban Institute
1984 James L. Sundquist
The Decline and Resurgence of Congress, Brookings Institution Press
1986 David M. Oshinsky
A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy, The Free Press
1988 Paul Light
Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform, Random House
1990 Christopher H. Foreman, Jr.
Signals From the Hill: Congressional Oversight and the Challenge of Social Regulation, Yale University Press
1992 Barbara Sinclair
The Transformation of the U.S. Senate, The Johns Hopkins University Press
1994 Gilbert C. Fite
Richard B. Russell, Jr., Senator From Georgia, The University of North Carolina Press
1995 Carol M. Swain
Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress, Harvard University Press
1995 John Jacobs
A Rage for Justice: The Passion and Politics of Phillip Burton, University of California Press
1996 William Lee Miller
Arguing About Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress, Alfred A. Knopf
1997 Robert V. Remini
Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time, W.W. Norton and Company
1998 Julian E. Zelizer
Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975, Cambridge University Press
1999 Frances E. Lee and Bruce I. Oppenheimer
Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation, The University of Chicago Press
2000 Nancy Beck Young
Wright Patman: Populism, Liberalism, & the American Dream, Southern Methodist University Press
2001 John Aloysius Farrell
Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century, Little, Brown and Company
2002 Robert Caro
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate, Random House
2003 Don Oberdorfer
Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat,Smithsonian Books
2004 Michael Ybarra
Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt, Steerforth Press
2005 David M. Barrett
The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy, University Press of Kansas
2006 Robert David Johnson
Congress and the Cold War, Cambridge University Press
2007 William G. Howell and Jon C. Pevehouse
While Dangers Gather: Congressional Checks on Presidential War Powers, Princeton University Press
2008 Keith Finley
Delaying the Dream: Southern Senators and the Fight against Civil Rights, 1938-1965, Louisiana State University Press
2009 Frances E. Lee
Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate, The University of Chicago Press
25th Douglas L. Kriner
After the Rubicon: Congress, Presidents, and the Politics of Waging War, The University of Chicago Press
26th Eric S. Heberlig and Bruce A. Larson
Congressional Parties, Institutional Ambition, and the Financing of Majority Control, The University of Michigan Press
27th Neil MacNeil and Richard A. Baker
The American Senate: An Insider’s Guide, Oxford University Press
28th Dr. Rebecca U. Thorpe
The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending, The University of Chicago Press
29th Julian E. Zelizer
The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society
30th Gergus M. Bordewich
The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government
31st Dr. Ruth Bloch Rubin
Bulding the Bloc: Intraparty Organization in the U.S. Congress
