US$75k Cundill History Prize 2019 shortlist announced

In North America, the shortlist has been announced for the Cundill History Prize, which rewards ‘the best history writing in English’.

The shortlisted titles are:

• Orphans of Empire: The fate of London’s foundlings (Helen Berry, OUP)
• Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi persecution and the quest for justice (Mary Fulbrook, OUP),
• A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the rise of the slave trade to the age of revolution (Toby Green, Allen Lane)
• Maoism: A global history (Julia Lovell, Bodley Head)
• Unruly Waters: How rains, rivers, coasts, and seas have shaped Asia’s history (Sunil Amrith, Basic Books)
• Frederick Douglass: American prophet (David Blight, Simon & Schuster)
• American Eden: David Hosack, botany, and medicine in the garden of the early republic (Victoria Johnson, Liveright)
• These Truths: A history of the United States (Jill Lepore, W W Norton).

Three finalists will be announced in Toronto on 16 October. The winner, awarded US$75,000 (A$110,780), will be announced in Montreal on 14 November. Two runners-up will each receive US$10,000 (A$14,770).

Administered by McGill University in Montreal, the Cundill Prize is awarded annually to an individual from any country for a book that has had or is likely to have ‘a profound literary, social and academic impact in the area of history’. For more information about the prize, visit the university’s website here.

Category: Awards International news