it gives me great pleasure to introduce eric sundquist. [applause] >> good evening.n behalf of my fellow panelists, let me thank the national book foundation for the privilege of judging this year's nominations in the category of non-fiction. perhaps i can speak for all of us and saying that in a lifetime of reading, i have not had a more gratifying, surprising, and educational experience. we had the pleasure of reviewing hundreds of books. 500 plus to be specific. across an exceptional wide range of genres and topics. everywhere encountering contemporary american writing at it very best. i'm sure all of us at one point or another, looked back with envy to the 20-year period from the mid '19 out of to the mid '80s when multiple awards recognizing as many as eight different categories of non-fiction were presented. for us; however, all of those categories were crowded in to one. and much as we would have loved to present many awards, we had first to narrow many super works down to a list of ten then down to these five finalists. "book of ages: the life and opinions of

>> we have eric sundquist who is winner of the james russell lowell prize from the modern language associationnd the award from phi beta kappa were the best looking humanity and the academic book award. this is a professor of humanities at johns hopkins university and it gives me great pleasure to introduce him. >> good evening and thank you. it is a great pleasure to be here. and let me thank the national book foundation for the privilege of judging this year's nominations in the category of nonfiction. and perhaps against beek for saying that in a lifetime of reading i have not had a more gratifying prizing and educational experience and we've had the pleasure of reviewing hundreds of books, 500 plus to be specific across a wide range of genres and topics. everywhere, and encountering contemporary american writing at its very best. i'm sure all of us at one point or another look back with envy at the 20 are. 1960s through the 1980s won multiple awards recognizing as many as eight different categories of nonfiction were presented. for us, however, all of those categories were crowded into one

>> we have eric sundquist who is winner of the james russell lowell prize from the modern language associationd from phi beta kappa were the best looking humanity and the academic book award. this is a professor of humanities at johns hopkins university and it gives me great pleasure to introduce him. >> good evening and thank you. it is a great pleasure to be here. and let me thank the national book foundation for the privilege of judging this year's nominations in the category of nonfiction. and perhaps against beek for saying that in a lifetime of reading i have not had a more gratifying prizing and educational experience and we've had the pleasure of reviewing hundreds of books, 500 plus to be specific across a wide range of genres and topics. everywhere, and encountering contemporary american writing at its very best. i'm sure all of us at one point or another look back with envy at the 20 are. 1960s through the 1980s won multiple awards recognizing as many as eight different categories of nonfiction were presented. for us, however, all of those categories were crowded into one and as muc