Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Author Steven Silberman Wins Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

American writer Steve Silberman’s book “Neurotribes,” about the history of autism and how people and society deal with it, was named the winner on Monday of the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.

Silberman’s is the first work of popular science to win the prestigious British award in its 17-year history and comes at a time of growing public awareness of the neurodevelopmental disorder that affects millions of people around the world, the prize committee said in a statement.

“‘Neurotribes’ is a tour de force of archival, journalistic and scientific research, both scholarly and widely accessible. We are delighted to award it the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize,” chair of judges Anne Applebaum said in a statement.

Silberman became interested in autism when he wrote a ground-breaking article for Wired magazine in 2001 about the seemingly high incidence of the condition among the children of successful tech couples in Silicon Valley.

His book, the full title of which is “Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently,” delves into the history of the diagnosis of autism simultaneously by Hans Asperger in Nazi-controlled Vienna and in the United States by Leo Kanner.

Asperger saw that the condition was not unusual and was manifested in a family of traits, including socially awkward behavior and precocious abilities, while Kanner described it as an uncommon condition that was triggered by cold behavior by a child’s parents.

Silberman argues that Kanner’s picture of autism stigmatized parents and the children suffering from the condition, a situation that is only now being rectified.

“We admired Silberman’s work because it is powered by a strongly argued set of beliefs: That we should stop drawing sharp lines between what we assume to be ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’, and that we should remember how much the differently wired human brain has, can and will contribute to our world,” Applebaum said.

“He has injected a hopeful note into a conversation that’s normally dominated by despair.”

The prize, which is open to books published in English by authors of any nationality, carries a 20,000-pound ($30,900) cash award. Last year’s winner was English writer Helen Macdonald’s “H is for Hawk,” about her decision to train a goshawk as a way of dealing with the grief of losing her father.

The other titles on the shortlist were Jonathan Bate’s “Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life,” Robert Macfarlane’s “Landmarks,” Laurence Scott’s “The Four-Dimensional Human,” Emma Sky’s “The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq” and Samanth Subramanian’s “This Divided Island: Stories From the Sri Lanka War.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.