The Lyman Book Awards were inaugurated in 1995 and have honored more than 240 books from more than 80 publishers.
The categories of North American Maritime and North American Naval History were formerly divided among Canadian naval and maritime history, U.S. naval history, and U.S. maritime history. World Maritime History and World Naval History were formerly one category.
| + Maritime and Naval Biography and Autobiography |
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher |
| 1996 | Robert Schneller | A Quest for Glory: A Biography of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren | Naval Institute Press |
| 1997 | Catherine Petroski | A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail | Northeastern University Press |
| 1998 | W. Gillies Ross | This Distant and Unsurveyed Country: A Woman's Winter at Baffin Island, 1857-58 | McGill-Queen's University Press |
| 1999 | Craig Symonds | Confederate Admiral: The Life and Wars of Franklin Buchanan | Naval Institute Press |
| 2000 | Spencer Tucker | Andrew Foote: Civil War Admiral on Western Waters | Naval Institute Press |
| 2001 | John H. Schroeder | Matthew Calbraith Perry: Antebellum Sailor and Diplomat | Naval Institute Press |
| 2003 | Thomas Wildenberg | All the Factors of Victory: Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Airpower | Brassey's |
| 2004 | Kathleen Broome Williams | Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea | Naval Institute Press |
| 2005 | Clark G. Reynolds | On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers | Naval Institute Press |
| 2006 | Mary Malloy | Devil on the Deep Blue Sea: The Notorious Career of Captain Samuel Hill of Boston | Bullbrier Press |
| 2006 | David Curtis Skaggs | Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy | Naval Institute Press |
| 2006 Hon. mention | John H. Schroeder | Commodore John Rodgers: Paragon of the Early American Navy | University Press of Florida |
| 2007 | Stephen Fox | Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama | Alfred A. Knopf |
| 2008 | David Hackett Fischer | Champlain's Dream: The Visionary Adventurer Who Made a New World in Canada | Simon and Schuster |
| 2011 | Elliot Carlson | Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway | Naval Institute Press |
| 2012 Hon. mention | Larry Berman | Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell “Bud” Zumwalt, Jr. | Harper |
| 2013 Hon. mention | Geoffrey L. Rossano, ed. | Hero of the Angry Sky: The World War I Diary and Letters of David S. Ingalls, America’s First Naval Ace | Ohio University Press |
| 2014 | Lloyd J. Matthews | General Henry Lockwood of Delaware: Shipmate of Melville, Co-builder of the Naval Academy, Civil War Commander | University of Delaware Press |
| 2015 | Dennis L. Noble | The Sailor’s Homer: The Life and Times of Richard McKenna, Author of The Sand Pebbles | Naval Institute Press |
| 2016 | Tamara Plakins Thornton | Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed American Life | University of North Carolina Press |
| 2017 | Sheila Johnson Kindred | Jane Austen's Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen | McGill-Queen's University Press |
| 2017 Hon. mention | Stan Grayson | A Man for All Oceans: Captain Joshua Slocum and the First Solo Voyage Around the World | Tilbury House Publishers/New Bedford Whaling Museum |
| 2019 Winner | Anthony J. Connors | Went to the Devil: A Yankee Whaler in the Slave Trade | University of Massachusetts Press |
| 2019 Hon. mention | Phillips Payson O’Brien | The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff | Dutton |
| 2020 | Brett Goodin | From Captives to Consuls: Three Sailors in Barbary and Their Self-Making Across the Early American Republic, 1770–1840 | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2021 Winner | Paul Stillwell | Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, Jr. | Naval Institute Press |
| 2021 Hon. mention | John B. Hattendorf & Pelham Boyer, eds. | To the Java Sea: Selections from the Diary, Reports, and Letters of Henry E. Eccles, 1940–1942 | Naval War College Press |
| 2022 Hon. mention | Ranulph Fiennes | Shackleton: The Biography | Pegasus |
| 2022 Hon. mention | Marc Wortman | Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power | Yale University Press |
| 2023 Winner | Robert W. Cherny | Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend | University of Illinois Press |
| 2023 Hon. mention | Margaret Willson | Woman, Captain, Rebel: The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain | Sourcebooks | |
| + Maritime and Naval Reference Works and Published Primary Sources |
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher |
| 1995 | Craig L. Symonds | The Naval Institute's Historical Atlas of U.S. Navy | Naval Institute Press |
| 1996 | Michael J. Crawford, ed. | The Naval Documents of the American Revolution, vol. 10 | Naval Historical Center |
| 1997 | Briton C. Busch & Barry M. Gough, eds. | Fur Traders from New England: The Boston Men in the North Pacific, 1787–1800 | Arthur H. Clark |
| 1998 | Robert Randolph Carter, Harold B. Gill, Jr. & Joanne Young | Searching for the Franklin Expedition: The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter | Naval Institute Press |
| 1999 | Robert J. Cressman | The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II | Naval Institute Press |
| 2000 | David Freeman | Canadian Warship Names | Vanwell |
| 2001 | No award |
| 2002 | Michael J. Crawford, ed. | The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, vol. 3 | Naval Historical Center |
| 2003 | C. Herbert Gilliland | Voyage to a Thousand Cares: Master's Mate Lawrence with the African Squadron, 1844–1846 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2004 | W.H. Bunting | Sea Struck | Martha's Vineyard Historical Society |
| 2005 | No award |
| 2006 Winner | Ralph Sessions | The Shipcarvers' Art: Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America | Princeton University Press |
| 2006 Hon. mention | C. Danial Elliott, with Everett C. Wilkie, Jr. & Richard Ring | Maritime History: A Hand-list of the Collection in the John Carter Brown Library (1474 to ca. 1860), revd. ed. | John Carter Brown Library |
| 2007 Winner | John B. Hattendorf, Editor in Chief | The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, 4 vols. | Oxford University Press |
| 2007 Hon. mention | Deidre Simmons | Keepers of the Record: The History of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives | McGill-Queen's University Press |
| 2008 Winner | George J. Billy & Christine M. Billy | Merchant Mariners at War: An Oral History of World War II | University Press of Florida |
| 2008 Hon. mention | Robert Eric Barde | Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island | Praeger |
| 2009 | Yonah Alexander | Terror on the High Seas: From Piracy to Strategic Challenge | Praeger Security International |
| 2010 | No award |
| 2011 | Gordon Miller | Voyages: To the New World and Beyond | University of Washington Press |
| 2012 Winner | Jonathan C. Kinghorn | The Atlantic Transport Line, 1881–1931: A History With Details on All Ships | McFarland |
| 2012 Hon. mention | John D. Broadwater | USS Monitor: A Historic Ship Completes its Final Voyage | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2013 Hon. mention | John A. Wolter, David A. Ranzan, & John J. McDonough, eds. | With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden, Jr., 1852–1855 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2014 | Nancy Shoemaker, ed. | Living With Whales: Documents and Oral Histories of Native New England Whaling History | University of Massachusetts Press |
| 2015 | Mark L. Evans & Roy A. Grossnick | United States Naval Aviation 1910–2010 | Naval History & Heritage Command |
| 2016 Winner | Rebecca Huycke Ellison | Daniel O. Killman’s Forty Years Master: A Life in Sail & Steam | McFarland |
| 2016 Hon. mention | Jun Kimura | Archaeology of East Asian Shipbuilding | University Press of Florida |
| 2017 Hon. mention | Alicia Caporaso, ed. | Formation Processes of Maritime Archaeological Landscapes | Society for Historical Archaeology/Springer |
| 2018 Hon. mention | Anna Gibson Holloway & Jonathan W. White | "Our Little Monitor": The Greatest Invention of the Civil War | Kent State University Press |
| 2019 | Ken W. Sayers | U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels: A History and Directory from World War I to Today | McFarland |
| 2020 | No award |
| 2021 Winner | William N. Still & Richard A. Stephenson | Shipbuilding in North Carolina, 1688–1918 | North Carolina Office of Archives & History |
| 2021 Hon. mention | Nathan Lipfert | Two Centuries of Maine Shipbuilding: A Visual History | Down East Books |
| 2022 Winner | Robert G. Allan, with Peter A. Robson | Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story | Harbour |
| 2022 Hon. mention | Russell A. Potter, Regina Koellner, Peter Carney, & Mary Williamson, eds. | "May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth": Letters of the Lost Franklin Arctic Expedition | McGill-Queen’s University Press |
| 2023 Co-Winners | Ryan Tucker Jones & Matt K. Matsuda, eds. | The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, vol. 1, The Pacific Ocean to 1800 | Cambridge University Press |
| 2023 Co-Winners | Anne Perez Hattori & Jane Samson, eds. | The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, vol. 2, The Pacific Ocean since 1800 | Cambridge University Press |
| 2023 Co-Winners | Christine F. Hughes & Charles E. Brodine, Jr., eds. | The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, vol. 4, 1814–1815 (Atlantic, Gulf Coast) | Naval History & Heritage Command | |
| + Maritime and Naval Science, Technology, and Environment |
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher |
| 1995 | Harold D. Langley | History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 1997 | Thomas R. Heinrich | Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2001 | Gary E. Weir | An Ocean in Common: American Naval Officers, Scientists, and the Ocean Environment | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2002 | Steven J. Dick | Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830–2000 | Cambridge University Press |
| 2002 | William H. Roberts | Civil War Ironclads | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2004 Hon. mention | Marc Levinson | | Princeton University Press |
| 2005 | Helen M. Rozwadowski | Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea | Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |
| 2006 | Anthony Newpower | Iron Men and Tin Fish: The Race to Build a Better Torpedo during World War II | Praeger Security International |
| 2007 | Larrie D. Ferreiro | Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600–1800 | MIT Press |
| 2008 | Gary Kroll | America's Ocean Wilderness: A Cultural History of Twentieth-Century Exploration | University Press of Kansas |
| 2008 Hon. mention | | Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818–1875 | University of Washington Press |
| 2009 | | The Fluid Envelope of our Planet: How the Study of Ocean Currents Became a Science | University of Toronto Press |
| 2010 | Susan Casey | The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean | Anchor |
| 2011 | Stephen J. Hornsby | Surveyors of Empire: Samuel Holland, J.F.W. Des Barres, and the Making of the Atlantic Neptune | McGill-Queen's University Press |
| 2012 | Lissa K. Wadewitz | The Nature of Borders: Salmon, Boundaries, and Bandits on the Salish Sea | University of Washington Press |
| 2013 | Kurkpatrick Dorsey | Whales and Nations: Environmental Diplomacy on the High Seas | University of Washington Press |
| 2014 Winner | | Fighting the Great War at Sea: Strategy, Tactics and Technology | Naval Institute Press |
| 2014 Hon. mention | John Maxtone-Graham | SS United States: Red, White, & Blue Riband | W.W. Norton |
| 2014 Hon. mention | Michael A. Osborne | The Emergence of Tropical Medicine in France | University of Chicago Press |
| 2015 | Wendy van Duivenvoorde | Dutch East India Company Shipbuilding: The Archaeological Study of Batavia and Other Seventeenth-Century VOC Ships | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2016 | Jennifer Hubbard, David J. Wildish, & Robert L. Stephenson | A Century of Maritime Science: The St. Andrews Biological Station | University of Toronto Press |
| 2016 Hon. mention | William Barr, trans. & ed. | Emil Bessels’ Polaris: The Chief Scientist's Recollections of the American North Pole Expedition, 1871–1873 | University of Calgary Press |
| 2017 | Charles W. J. Withers | Zero Degrees: Geographies of the Prime Meridien | Harvard University Press |
| 2017 Hon. mention | Peter Wadhams | A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic | Oxford University Press |
| 2018 Winner | Jason W. Smith | To Master the Boundless Sea: The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire | University of North Carolina Press |
| 2018 Hon. mention | Roger C. Smith, ed. | Florida's Lost Galleon: The Emanuel Point Shipwreck | University Press of Florida |
| 2019 Winner | Margaret E. Schotte | Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1500–1800 | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2019 Hon. mention | Richard J. King | Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick | University of Chicago Press |
| 2020 | Larrie Ferreiro | Bridging the Seas: The Rise of Naval Architecture in the Industrial Age, 1800–2000 | MIT Press |
| 2021 | Norman Polmar & Lee J. Mathers | Opening the Great Depths: The Bathyscaph Trieste and Pioneers of Undersea Exploration | Naval Institute Press |
| 2022 Winner | Graham Bell | Full Fathom 5000: The Expedition of HMS Challenger and the Strange Animals It Found in the Deep Sea | Oxford University Press |
| 2022 Hon. Mention | Martin V. Melosi | Water in North American Environmental History | Routledge |
| 2023 Winner | Fynn Holm | The Gods of the Sea: Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c. 1600–2019 | Cambridge University Press |
| 2023 Hon. mention | Laura Trethewey | The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans | Harper Wave; Goose Lane | |
| + Canadian Naval and Maritime History |
| Year of Publication | Author | Book | Publisher |
| 1995 | James Pritchard | Anatomy of a Naval Disaster: The 1746 French Expedition to North America | McGill-Queen's University Press |
| 1996 | Michael L. Hadley, Rob Huebert, & Fred W. Crickard, eds. | A Nation's Navy: In Quest of Canadian Naval Identity | McGill Queen's University Press |
| 1997 | Peter E. Pope | The Many Landfalls of John Cabot | University of Toronto Press |
| 1998 | Robert Malcomson | Lords of the Lake: The Naval War on Lake Ontario, 1812–1814 | Robin Brass Studio |
| 1999 | James P. Delgado | Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the Northwest Passage | Checkmark Books |
| 2000 | Arnold Hague | Allied Convoy System, 1939–1945 | Vanwell; Chatham; Naval Institute Press |
| 2001 | Robert Malcomson | Warships of the Great Lakes, 1754–1834 | Chatham; Naval Institute Press |
| 2002 | John Griffith Armstrong | The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy | University of British Columbia Press |
| 2003 | Julian Gywn | Frigates and Foremasts: The North American Squadron in Nova Scotia Waters, 1745–1815 | University of British Columbia Press |
| 2004 Winner | Peter E. Pope | Fish into Wine: The Newfoundland Plantation in the Seventeenth Century | University of North Carolina Press |
| 2004 Hon. mention | Fraser M. McKee | "Sink all the shipping there": The Wartime Loss of Canada's Merchant Ships and Fishing Schooners | Vanwell |
| 2005 Winner | Stuart E. Jenness | The Making of an Explorer: George Hubert Wilkins and the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 | McGill-Queen's University Press |
| 2005 Hon. mention | Jonathan R. Dull | The French Navy and the Seven Years' War | University of Nebraska Press |
| 2006 Winner | | A Science on the Scales: The Rise of Canadian Atlantic Fisheries Biology, 1898–1939 | University of Toronto Press |
| 2006 Hon. mention | Barry Gough | Through Water, Ice and Fire: Schooner Nancy of the War of 1812 | Dundurn |
| 2007 | Barry Gough | Fortune's River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America | Harbour |
| 2008 Winner | Robert Malcomson | Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813 | Robin Brass Studio; Naval Institute Press |
| 2008 Hon. mention | Freeman M. Tovell | At the Far Reaches of Empire: The Life of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra | University British Columbia Press |
| 2009 | Aaron Plamondon | The Politics of Procurement: Military Acquisitions in Canada and the Sea King Helicopter | University of Chicago Press |
| 2010 | No award |
| 2011 | James S. Pritchard | A Bridge of Ships: Canadian Shipbuilding During the Second World War | McGill-Queen’s University Press |
| 2012 Winner | Nicholas Tracy | A Two-Edged Sword: The Navy As an Instrument of Canadian Foreign Policy | McGill-Queen’s University Press |
| 2012 Hon. mention | Barry Gough | Juan de Fuca’s Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams | Harbour |
| 2013 | John English | Ice and Water: Politics, Peoples, and the Arctic Council | Allen Lane |
| 2014 Winner | Gordon W. Smith, ed. by P. Whitney Lackenbauer | A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North: Terrestrial Sovereignty, 1870–1939 | University of Calgary Press |
| 2014 Hon. mention | Donald Barry, Bob Applebaum & Earl Wiseman | Fishing for a Solution: Canada's Fisheries Relations with the European Union, 1977–2013 | University of Calgary Press |
| 2015 | Glen M. Stein | Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition | McFarland |
| 2016 | Joel Zemel | Scapegoat, The Extraordinary Legal Proceedings Following the 1917 Halifax Explosion | New World |
| 2017 | Jeffers Lennox | Homelands and Empire: Indigenous Spaces, Imperial Fictions, and Competition for Territory in Northeast North America, 1690–1763 | University of Toronto Press |
| 2018 | Michael Palin | Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time | Random House Canada |
| 2019 | John M. MacFarlane & Lynn J. Salmon | Around the World in a Dugout Canoe: The Untold Story of Captain John Voss and the Tilikum | Harbour |
| 2020 | No award |
| 2021 | Barry Gough | Possessing Meares Island: A Historian's Journey into the Past of Clayoquot Sound | Harbour | |
| + U.S. Maritime History |
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher |
| 1995 | William C. Fleetwood, Jr. | Tidecraft: The Boats of South Carolina, Georgia, and Northeastern Florida, 1550–1950 | WBG Marine Press |
| 1996 | Wayne M. O'Leary | Maine Sea Fisheries: The Rise and Fall of a Native Industry, 1830–1890 | Northeastern University Press |
| 1997 | W. Jeffrey Bolster | Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail | Harvard University Press |
| 1998 | Benjamin W. Labaree, William M. Fowler, Jr., John Hattendorf, Jeffrey J. Safford,Edward W. Sloan, & Andrew German | America and the Sea: A Maritime History | Mystic Seaport Museum |
| 1999 | Charles R. Schultz | Forty-Niners 'Round the Horn | University of South Carolina Press |
| 1999 Hon. mention | Alexander Boyd Hawes | Off Soundings: Aspects of the Maritime History of Rhode Island | Posterity Press |
| 2000 | Lisa Norling | Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720–1870 | University of North Carolina Press |
| 2000 Hon. mention | Ralph Linwood Snow & Douglas K. Lee | A Shipyard in Maine: Percy & Small and the Great Schooners | Tilbury House/Maine Maritime Museum |
| 2001 | Nicholas Dean | Snow Squall: The Last American Clipper Ship | Tilbury House/Maine Maritime Museum |
| 2002 | Wade G. Dudley | Splintering the Wooden Wall | Naval Institute Press |
| 2003 | ALex R. Larzelere | The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story | Naval Institute Press |
| 2004 Winner | Paul A. Gilje | Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution | University of Pennsylvania Press |
| 2004 Hon. mention | James A. McMillan | The Final Victims: Foreign Slave Trade to North America, 1783–1810 | University of South Carolina Press |
| 2005 Winner | Peter L. Bernstein | Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation | W.W. Norton |
| 2005 Hon. mention | Edwin L. Dunbaugh | New England Steamship Company: Long Island Sound Night Boats in the Twentieth Century | University Press of Florida |
| 2006 Winner | Joshua M. Smith | Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783–1820 | University Press of Florida |
| 2006 Hon. mention | Eric Robert Taylor | If We Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade | Louisiana State University Press |
| 2007 | Eric Jay Dolin | Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America | W.W. Norton |
| 2007 | Donald G. Shomette | Shipwrecks, Sea Raiders, and Maritime Disasters along the Delmarva Coast, 1632–2004 | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2008 | William E. Lass | Navigating the Missouri: Steamboating on Nature's Highway, 1819–1935 | Arthur H. Clark |
| 2008 | Frances F. Dunwell | The Hudson: America's River | Columbia University Press |
| 2009 | John R. Bockstoce | Furs and Frontiers in the Far North: The Contest among Native and Foreign Nations for the Bering Strait Fur Trade | Yale University Press |
| 2010 | William S. Dudley | Maritime Maryland: A History | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2011 | William Michael Morgan | Pacific Gibraltar: U.S.-Japanese Rivalry over the Annexation of Hawai'i, 1885–1898 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2012 Winner | | The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail | Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |
| 2012 Hon. mention | | Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine: Iron, Guns and Pearls | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2013 Winner | David Igler | The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush | Oxford University Press |
| 2013 Hon. mention | Jennifer Schell | "A Bold and Hardy Race of Men”: The Lives and Literature of American Whalemen | University of Massachusetts Press |
| 2013 Hon. mention | Denver Brunsman | The Evil Necessity: British Naval Impressment in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic | University of Virginia Press |
| 2014 Winner | Brian Rouleau | With Sails Whitening Every Sea: Mariners and the Making of an American Maritime Empire | Cornell University Press |
| 2014 Hon. mention | Catherine Cangany | Frontier Seaport: Detroit's Transformation into an Atlantic Entrepôt | University of Chicago Press |
| 2014 Hon. mention | Dane A. Morrison | True Yankees: The South Seas and The Discovery of American Identity | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2015 Winner | Faye M. Kert | Privateering: Patriots and Profits in the War of 1812 | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| 2015 Hon. mention | Mark G. Hanna | Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740 | University of North Carolina Press |
| 2015 Hon. mention | Joshua L. Reid | The Sea is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs | Yale University Press |
| 2016 Winner | Donald Grady Shomette | Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast, 1775–1783 | Schiffer |
| 2016 Hon. mention | Lee Van Der Voo | The Fish Market: Inside the Big-Money Battle for the Ocean and Your Dinner Plate | St. Martin's Press |
| 2017 Winner | S. Max Edelson | The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America Before Independence | Harvard University Press |
| 2017 Hon. mention | William M. Fowler, Jr. | Steam Titans: Cunard, Collins, and the Epic Battle for Commerce on the North Atlantic | Bloomsbury |
| 2017 Hon. mention | Robert P. Watson | The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the American Revolution | Da Capo Press |
| 2018 Winner | Matthew R. Bahar | Storm of the Sea: Indians & Empires in the Atlantic's Age of Sail | Oxford University Press |
| 2018 Hon. mention | Matthew McKenzie | Breaking the Banks: Representations and Realities in New England Fisheries, 1866–1966 | University of Massachusetts Press |
| 2019 Winner | Nancy Shoemaker | Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles: Americans in Nineteenth-Century Fiji | Cornell University Press |
| 2019 Hon. mention | James M. Lindgren | Preserving Maritime America: A Cultural History of the Nation's Great Maritime Museums | University of Massachusetts Press |
| 2020 Winner | Jamin Wells | Shipwrecked: Coastal Disasters and the Making of the American Beach | University of North Carolina Press |
| 2020 Hon. mention | Colin J. Davis | Contested and Dangerous Seas: North Atlantic Fishermen, Their Wives, Unions, and the Politics of Exclusion | University of Massachusetts Press |
| 2021 Winner | Hannah Farber | Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding | University of North Carolina Press/Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture |
| 2021 Hon. mention | Timothy D. Walker, ed. | Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railway | University of Massachusetts Press |
| 2022 Winner | Gregg Andrews | Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis 1875–1930 | Louisiana State University Press |
| 2022 Hon. mention | Jane Hooper | Yankees in the Indian Ocean: American Commerce and Whaling, 1786–1860 | Ohio University Press |
| 2022 Hon. mention | Joshua M. Smith | Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812 | University of Massachusetts Press | |
| + U.S. Naval History |
| Year | Author | Book | Publisher |
| 1995 | Charles Dana Gibson & E. Kay Gibson | Assault and Logistics: Union Army Coastal and River Operations, 1861–1866 and
Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Union Army, 1861–1868 | Ensign Press |
| 1995 | Jeffery G. Barlow | Revolt of the Admirals: The Fight for Naval Aviation, 1945–1950 | Naval Historical Center |
| 1996 | Malcolm Muir | Black Shoes and Blue Water: Surface Warfare in the United States Navy, 1945–1975 | Naval Historical Center |
| 1997 | David Curtis Skaggs & Gerard T. Altoff | A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813 | Naval Institute Press |
| 1998 | Jack Sweetman, ed. | Great American Naval Battles | Naval Institute Press |
| 2000 | William Henry Flayhart III | The American Line, 1871–1902 | W.W. Norton |
| 2001 | Kathleen Broome Williams | Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the U.S. Navy in World War II | Naval Institute Press |
| 2002 | Mitchell B. Lerner | The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign Policy | University Press of Kansas |
| 2003 | Jack Friend | West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay | Naval Institute Press |
| 2004 Winner | Michael J. Bennett | Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War | University of North Carolina Press |
| 2004 Hon. mention | R. Blake Dunnavent | Brown Water Warfare: The U.S. Navy in Riverine Warfare and the Emergence of Tactical Doctrine, 1775–1970 | University Press of Florida |
| 2004 Hon. mention | John Darrell Sherwood | Afterburner: Naval Aviation and the Vietnam War | New York University Press |
| 2005 Winner | Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully | Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway | Potomac |
| 2005 Hon. mention | Craig L. Symonds | Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History | Oxford University Press |
| 2006 Winner | William N. Still, Jr. | Crisis at Sea: The U.S. Navy in European Waters in World War I | University Press of Florida |
| 2006 Hon. mention | James D. Hornfischer | Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors | Bantam |
| 2007 | Lisle A. Rose | Power at Sea vol. 1, The Age of Navalism, 1890–1918; vol. 2, The Breaking Storm, 1919–1945; vol. 3, A Violent Peace, 1946–2006 | University of Missouri Press |
| 2008 Winner | Craig L. Symonds | Lincoln and His Admirals | Oxford University Press |
| 2008 Hon. mention | Howard J. Fuller | Clad in Iron: The American Civil War and the Challenge of British Naval Power | Praeger Security International |
| 2008 Hon. mention | John T. Kuehn | Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet that Defeated the Japanese | Naval Institute Press |
| 2009 | William R. Braisted | Diplomats in Blue: U.S. Naval Officers in China, 1922–1933 | University Press of Florida |
| 2010 Winner | Albert A. Nofi | To Train The Fleet For War: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems, 1923–1940 | U.S. Naval War College Press |
| 2011 Hon. mention | Spencer C. Tucker, ed. | The Civil War Naval Encyclopedia | ABC-CLIO |
| 2012 Winner | David Rigby | Allied Master Strategists: The Combined Chiefs of Staff in World War II | Naval Institute Press |
| 2012 Hon. mention | Robert Shenk | America's Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919–1923 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2013 Winner | Thomas Wildenberg | Billy Mitchell's War with the Navy: The Interwar Rivalry over Air Power | Naval Institute Press [2014] |
| 2013 Hon. mention | Matthew Taylor Raffety | The Republic Afloat: Law, Honor, and Citizenship in Maritime America | University of Chicago Press |
| 2014 Winner | David J. Bercuson & Holger Herwig | Long Night of the Tankers: Hitler's War Against Caribbean Oil | University of Calgary Press |
| 2014 Hon. mention | Kevin J. Crisman, ed. | Coffins of the Brave: Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812 | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2015 | John Darrell Sherwood | War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965–1968 | Naval History & Heritage Command |
| 2016 Winner | Paul E. Pedisich | Congress Buys a Navy: Politics, Economics, and the Rise of American Naval Power, 1881–1921 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2016 Hon. mention | Lisle A. Rose | Seas, Skies, and Submarines: America's Sailors in the Great War | University of Missouri Press |
| 2017 Winner | Gary J. Ohls | American Amphibious Warfare: The Roots of Tradition to 1865 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2017 Hon. mention | Donald M. Kehn, Jr. | In the Highest Degree Tragic: The Sacrifice of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet in the East Indies during World War II | University of Nebraska Press |
| 2018 Winner | | Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There | Naval Institute Press |
| 2018 Hon. mention | Scott Mobley | Progressive in Navy Blue: Maritime Strategy, American Empire, and the Transformation of U.S. Naval Identity, 1873–1898 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2018 Hon. mention | William N. Still, Jr. | Victory Without Peace: The United States Navy in European Waters, 1919–1924 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2019 Winner | Benjamin Armstrong | Small Boats and Daring Men: Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy | University of Oklahoma Press |
| 2019 Hon. mention | Ryan D. Wadle | Selling Sea Power: Public Relations and the U.S. Navy, 1917–1941 | University of Oklahoma Press |
| 2020 Winner | Thomas Heinrich | Warship Builders: An Industrial History of U.S. Navy Ship-building, 1922–1945 | Naval Institute Press |
| 2020 Hon. mention | John B. Hattendorf & William P. Leeman, eds. | Forging the Trident: Theodore Roosevelt and the United States Navy | Naval Institute Press |
| 2021 Winner | Michael Bonner & Peter McCord | The Union Blockade in the American Civil War, A Reassessment | University of Tennessee Press |
| 2021 Hon. mention | Claude Berube | On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era | University of Alabama Press |
| 2021 Hon. mention | Edward J. Marolda | Admirals Under Fire: The US Navy and the Vietnam War | Texas Tech University Press |
| 2022 Winner | Thomas Sheppard | Commanding Petty Despots: The American Navy in the New Republic | Naval Institute Press |
| 2022 Hon. mention | Trent Hone | Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific | Naval Institute Press |
| 2022 Hon. mention | Michael A. Verney | A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic | University of Chicago Press | |
