2015 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature finalists
Today the jury for the world’s most lucrative award for historical non-fiction writing announced this year's finalist list.Ěý There are now three potential winners in the running for the $75,000 US 2015 Cundill Prize.
The three finalists are:
- Sven Beckert – Empire of Cotton: A Global History (Alfred A. Knopf)
- Susan Pedersen – The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire (Oxford University Press)
- Bettina Stangneth – Eichmann before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (Bodley Head)ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý
This year’s Cundill jury includesĚýAnthony Cary,ĚýBritish Commissioner of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan;ĚýDavid Frum, author and editor forĚýThe Atlantic;ĚýChad Gaffield, University of Ottawa ProfessorĚýof History and University Research Chair in Digital Scholarship;ĚýMaya Jasanoff, Coolidge Professor of History and Harvard College Professor at Harvard UniversityĚý (Liberty’s Exiles:Ěý American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World);Ěýand author Anna Porter, (Buying a Better World: George Soros and Billionaire Philanthropy, The Ghosts of Europe) and winnerĚýof the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
Ěý“The Cundill Prize jury is looking for that certain book that is scholarly but that is written in a language that speaks to an audience outside the academy,” said Prof. Hudson Meadwell, who serves as Administrative Chair of the Cundill Prize. “ The Cundill Prize is a wonderful form of recognition.Ěý It is a relatively new award and it is gaining more impact with each passing award. It is now recognized as the most important historical prize in the English language.”
The Cundill Prize accepts books published in English – or translated to English – in the area of history.Ěý This year the Prize received 159 titles from publishers around the globe. In addition to the Grand Prize, two “Recognition of Excellence” awards of $10,000 U.S. each, are granted to the runners-up.Ěý There were six books in the jury’s original shortlist; today’s announcement narrows the field to just three titles.
The Grand Prize winner of the 2015 Cundill Prize will be announced at a gala awards ceremony in Toronto on Monday, November 2, at the Shangri-La Hotel. Famed Canadian author (The Massey Murder; Gold Diggers, Striking It Rich in the Klondike)Ěýand speakerĚýCharlotte Gray will host. ĚýĚý
The 2014 Cundill Prize was won by Gary J. Bass, a professor of politics at Princeton University for his detailing of a forgotten / ignored mass tragedy in Bangladesh. The book The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide was published in 2013 by Alfred A. Knopf. Professor Bass will be the keynote speaker at the annual Cundill Prize Lecture on October 8, 2015. The afternoon lecture will be held at Birks Heritage Chapel, 2nd floor 3520 University Street in Montreal.
About the Prize:ĚýThe Cundill Prize in Historical Literature at McGill is the world’s most important international nonfiction historical literature prize. It was established in 2008 by McGill alumnus F. Peter Cundill, who passed away in January 2011. The prize is administered by Ď㽶ĘÓƵ’s Dean of Arts, with the help of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC), and is awarded annually to an individual who has published a book determined to have had a profound literary, social and academic impact in the area of history.ĚýĚý
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PHOTO: Laurie Devine
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