Peter Frankopan
Anne Applebaum
Lyse Doucet
Eliga Gould
Sujit Sivasundaram
2020 Jury
The Cundill History Prize is steering through one of the most challenging moments in recent world history with an exceptional international jury of prize-winning historians and journalists.
Announcing the 2020 panel, Antonia Maioni, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at McGill University, said: “The function of the Cundill History Prize to champion the world’s best history writing as a way to better understand the present and to start mapping a future is perhaps more important than ever right now.” Read more.
“This has been an extraordinary year for history writing, with some truly exceptional books that have changed how we look at the past. As we’ve all been learning during lockdown, making sense of the world around us has never been more important. I’m very excited by the outstanding panel that have agreed to judge the Cundill Prize this year – and to working with them to find the voices and ideas that have shown again why the study of history is so important.”
Peter Frankopan
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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