2010 Pulitzer Prize Winners

Nonfiction: The Dead Hand

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman is a well-documented narrative that examines the terrifying doomsday competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and how weapons of mass destruction still imperil humankind.

Hoffman, a contributing editor at The Washington Post, began thinking about the events detailed in the book while serving as the Post's Moscow bureau chief from 1995 to 2001.

Finalists in this category were How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities by John Cassidy and The Evolution of God by Robert Wright.