Silberman wins 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize

Steve Silberman has won the £20,000 ($42,906) Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction for Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter about People Who Think Differently (A&U), reports the Bookseller. Judging panel chair Anne Applebaum said Neurotribes ‘lays out the intellectual history of the condition we now call “autism”, tracing the evolution of the diagnosis from Nazi Vienna up until the present day, explaining how political and social context shaped scientific and medical perspectives’. ‘Neurotribes is tour de force of archival, journalistic and scientific research, both scholarly and widely accessible,’ said Applebaum. Silverman’s book was chosen from a shortlist of six titles, which was announced in October. A longlist was announced in September. The Samuel Johnson Prize is the richest prize for nonfiction in the UK. For more information, click here.