Peter Frankopan
2020 Chair of the Jury
The Professor of Global History at Oxford University Peter Frankopan, best-selling author of The Silk Roads, will chair the jury for the 2020 Cundill History Prize. Read more.
“This is something of a golden age for history writing. While it can be hard to separate outstanding books that look at different aspects of the past in different ways, it is wonderful to have the chance to celebrate and reward first class scholarship that is accessible and exciting for specialists and the general reader alike. In our noisy, complex and disruptive age, making sense of the world around us is more important than ever.”
You can read an interview with Peter Frankopan on Publishing Perspectives, and more on the announcement and 2020 submissions opening on BBC HistoryExtra, The Bookseller, and BookBrunch.
The prestigious international Cundill History Prize recognizes and rewards the best history writing
in English.
Administered by McGill University in Montreal, the Cundill History Prize generously rewards the leading historians of our time, with US$75,000 going to the winner, and the two runners up each receiving a Recognition of Excellence Award, together with US$10,000. A distinguished jury is seeking the book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal. Previous winners include Thomas W. Laqueur, Susan Pedersen, Lisa Jardine, Anne Applebaum, and Diarmaid MacCulloch.
September 19, 2019
Shortlist Announcement
Canadian Consulate, New York
October 16, 2019
Finalists Announcement
Massey College, Toronto
November 13, 2019
Cundill History Prize Lecture: Maya Jasanoff
McGill University, Montreal
November 14, 2019
Cundill History Prize Gala
Winner announcement
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal
Previous Winners
2018 | Maya Jasanoff
The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World
2017 | Daniel Beer
The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars
2016 | Thomas W. Laqueur
The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains
2015 | Susan Pedersen
The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire
2014 | Gary Bass
The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide
2013 | Anne Applebaum
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956
2012 | Stephen Platt
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, The West, And The Epic Story of The Taiping Civil War
2011 | Sergio Luzzatto
Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age
2010 | Diarmaid MacCulloch
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
2009 | Lisa Jardine
Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory
2008 | Stuart B. Schwartz
All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World
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