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  Spitz Prize

David and Elaine Spitz Prize

The David and Elaine Spitz Prize is awarded every year for the best book in liberal and/or democratic theory published two years earlier (e.g., the 2008 prize will be awarded to a book published in 2006).

Books which are primarily historical (rather than theoretical), together with textbooks and edited books, are ineligible. Publishers and individuals may nominate books by sending copies marked "Regarding Spitz Prize" to the Prize Committee members.

2008 Winner

Martha Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice
Harvard University Press, 2006

Martha Nussbaum's FRONTIERS OF JUSTICE examines several important issues that seem to lie on the periphery of the most salient conceptions of social justice: namely, our moral obligations to those with disabilities, to foreign nationals, and to nonhuman animals.

Nussbaum carefully explores the resources and the limitations of social contractarian approaches in dealing with these questions; and she argues that these theories need supplementation by a modified form of the capabilities approach she previously articulated in WOMEN AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. This book provides an admirably lucid survey of both these important issues and also the relevant theoretical landscape. Even those who are ultimately not convinced by this book's constructive conclusions will find it immensely provocative and illuminating, an essential reference point for future discussions of the important questions it addresses.

You may view a list of prizewinners and learn more about individual books through our Spitz Prizewinners Page.