Dana Priest Wins the 2004 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

Award Honors Priest's The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military

New York, May 17, 2004 -- The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism was presented today to Dana Priest for her book The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military (W. W. Norton & Company). The award, which includes a $15,000 prize, was presented by Paul LeClerc, the Library's President, and Osborn Elliott, Chairman of the award's Selection Committee, at a ceremony held in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. A Washington Post reporter, Dana Priest currently covers the CIA and writes and lectures about military and intelligence issues.

The Bernstein Award is given annually to an outstanding journalist whose book has brought an important issue, event, or policy to public attention. "Ms. Priest has taken a timely and little understood issue -- America's increasing reliance on the military to manage its foreign policy -- and raised it in the American consciousness," said Osborn Elliott. "The Mission is a wonderful piece of journalism -- scrupulously researched, beautifully written, insightful, and highly readable."

Some 97 books were nominated for this year's Bernstein competition by publishers, editors, and executives of major newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses. Five finalists were chosen by a review committee of New York Public Library librarians. The four other finalists, each of whom received a $1,000 prize, are: James Glanz and Eric Lipton for City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center (Times Books); Stephen S. Hall for Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension (Houghton Mifflin Company); Peter Steinfels for A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America (Simon & Schuster); and Fareed Zakaria for The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (W. W. Norton & Company).

About the Book
The Mission is a boots-on-the-ground account of America's growing dependence on our military to manage world affairs, describing the clash of culture and purpose through the eyes of soldiers and officers themselves. With unparalleled access to all levels of the military, the author traveled to eighteen countries -- including Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Kosovo, Indonesia, and Nigeria -- talking to generals, admirals, Special Forces A-teams, and infantry troops. "I tried to achieve ‘fly on the wall' status, to be unobtrusive and to write down what unfolded before me," Priest writes in her introduction. "But I also relied on hundreds of interviews."

The book documents a historic and thought-provoking trend, one made even more significant by current events in Iraq and Afghanistan as the country turns to its warriors to solve the complex international challenges ahead. The result is a full examination of a new and historic policy -- the ever-widening role of our soldiers as America seeks to change and to pacify the world.

About the Author
Dana Priest reports on military and intelligence issues for the Washington Post and is the recipient of the 2001 Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Defense Reporting. She lives in Washington, D. C.

About the Selection Committee
The winner of the Library's Journalism Award is chosen by an independent committee of professional journalists and publishers, chaired by Osborn Elliott, former Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek and Founding Chairman of the Citizens Committee for New York City. This year's committee members are Ellis Cose, Contributing Editor of Newsweek; James F. Hoge, Jr., Editor of Foreign Affairs; Harold W. (Terry) McGraw III, Chairman, President, and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies; Jack Rosenthal, President, The New York Times Company Foundation; Elaine Sciolino, Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times; and Ray Sokolov, writer, and Alair Townsend, Publisher, Crain's New York Business.

About the Bernstein Book Award
Established in 1987, The New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award honors journalists and their unique role in drawing the attention of the public to important current issues. The award was established with a gift from Joseph F. Bernstein in honor of Helen Bernstein, a former journalist in Palm Beach, Florida. The gift also included an endowment for the position of the Helen Bernstein Chief Librarian for Periodicals and Journals in the General Research Division of the Library. The chair is currently held by Stewart Bodner, who oversees a collection of 11,500 current periodicals in 24 languages. This collection is used by approximately 60,000 researchers annually and is an invaluable resource for writers, artists, journalists, broadcasters, business people, and students. Information about the award and the nomination process is available online at www.nypl.org/pr/awardspage.cfm.

Previous Winners
The previous 16 winners are:

2003: Keith Bradsher, High and Mighty: SUVs -- The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How they Got That Way

2002: Nina Bernstein, The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care

2001: Elaine Sciolino, Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran

2000 (joint award): James Mann, About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton; Patrick Tyler, A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History

1999: Philip Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: stories from Rwanda

1998: Patti Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa

1997: David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biography in an Age of Extinctions

1996:Tina Rosenberg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism

1995: Joseph Nocera, A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class

1994: David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

1993: Samuel Freedman, Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church

1992: Alex P. Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America

1991: Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America

1990: Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem

1989: Judy Woodruff for her series of television reports focusing on the Iran-Contra affair

1988: James Reston, in special recognition of his 50-year contribution to journalism.

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Press contact: Herb Scher, 212.704.8600.