Governor's Award

Established in 1979, the Governor's Award is given every four years in the last year of a governor's term to the author whose book has been judged by a panel of scholars to have made the most significant contribution to Kentucky history. It is presented jointly by the Office of the Governor and the Kentucky Historical Society. Past winners of this distinguished award are listed below.


2011
Craig Thompson Friend, Kentucke’s Frontiers (2011)

2007
James C. Klotter, Kentucky Justice, Southern Honor, and American Manhood: Understanding the Life and Death of Richard Reid (2003)

2003
Kenneth H. Noe, Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle (2001)

1999
William E. Ellis, Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique (1997)

1995
John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1992)

1991
George C. Wright, Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865-1940: Lynchings, Mob Rule, and "Legal Lynchings" (1990)

1987
James A. Ramage, Rebel Raider: The Life of John Hunt Morgan (1986) and George C. Wright, Life Behind the Veil: Blacks in Louisville, Kentucky, 1865-1930 (1985) Shared Award

1983
John Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley (1980)

1979
Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau, Federal Courts in the Early Republic: Kentucky, 1789-1816 (1978)