Business narratives took home the Pulitzer Prize in two separate categories this year—Biograghy and History.

Liaquat Ahamed’s Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World won top honors in History, and has been widely praised elsewhere, including winning the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award and being the sole book in the business category to have been chosen in The New York Times Book Review 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2009. (Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin was a runner-up in the category.)

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles was honored in the Biography category, and has also been acclaimed by critics, winning the National Book Award in Nonfiction and being named one of the Best Biographies of 2009 by strategy + business magazine.

If you’re interested in more business histories and biographies, check out Jack’s recent review of Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West by Stephen Fried.