2009 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Finalist

Edward Alden
The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11 (Harper)

Judges’ Citation

Exceptional journalism is required to take immigration---a neglected sideshow in the nation’s globe-girdling response to the September 11 attacks---and make the topic as evocative of America’s misplaced values as the Iraq War and the tolerance for torture. In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden does a masterful job of comprehensive reporting, fair-minded analysis, and structurally sound argumentation to chronicle callous and capricious border enforcement in the self-defeating quest for homeland security. This is a laudable example of a book that transcends deadline journalism to tell in compelling fashion a vital-to-democracy story that other reporters missed.

Bio

Edward Alden is the Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the former Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times. He has been a guest on numerous television and radio shows, including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and The McLaughlin Group, as well as on NPR, the BBC, CNN and MSNBC.

Judges for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize

David Michaelis, Patricia O’Toole, and Walter Shapiro.

2009 Lukas Prize Winners
Read the Press Release