The 2019 Shortlist
Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia’s History
Basic Books (US), Allen Lane (UK)
Orphans of Empire: The Fate of London’s Foundlings
Oxford University Press (UK, US)
Frederick Douglass: American Prophet
Simon & Schuster (US)
Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice
Oxford University Press (UK)
A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution
The University of Chicago Press (US), Allen Lane (UK)
American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic
Liveright Publishing (US)
These Truths: A History of the United States
W. W. Norton & Company (US)
Maoism: A Global History
The Bodley Head (UK), Knopf (US)
Read more about all shortlisted titles here, and the announcement at the Canadian Consulate in New York here.
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.