This image released by Viking shows "After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America" by Jessica Goudeau, winner of the Lukas Book Prize, a $10,000 honor for a socially or politically themed work. (Viking via AP)NEW YORK – Books about slavery, immigration and drug treatment are among this year's winners of awards presented by the J. Anthony Lukas Project. Jessica Goudeau's “After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America” won the Lukas Book Prize, a $10,000 honor for a socially or politically themed work which demonstrates “literary grace, commitment to serious research, and original reporting.”The Mark Lynton History Prize, also worth $10,000, was given to William G. Thomas III for “A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War.”On Wednesday, the Lukas project also announced two work-in-progress awards, each with a $25,000 cash prize to help with the book's completion: Emily Dufton, for “Addiction, Inc.: How the Corporate Takeover of America’s Treatment Industry Created a Profitable Epidemic” and Casey Parks, for “Diary Of a Misfit." AdThe Lukas project, based at Columbia University, is named for the late investigative reporter and author. The awards were established in 1998 and have previously been given to Robert Caro, Isabel Wilkerson and Jill Lepore among others.

The book looks at American history and the treatment of Blacks and finds what she calls an enduring, unseen and unmentioned caste system. Wilkersons book and an acclaimed biography of Malcolm X are among this years nominees for awards presented by the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project. Winners of the Lukas Book Prize and Lynton history prize receive $10,000 each. The project awards two works in progress, each worth $25,000. Ad“The Dead are Arising,” which won the National Book Award last fall, is a finalist for the Lynton prize.