September 2nd 2025 in News

The 2025 Cundill History Prize Shortlist

From activism for women’s rights to the lives of Soviet dissidents, from the struggle for liberation in Korea and Haiti to a sixteenth century peasants’ revolt that shook Europe, the shortlist for the 2025 Cundill History Prize highlights books that uncover neglected histories and speak to our current context of conflict, protest and the concern with freedom across the globe.

Selected from a record number of over 400 international submissions, the eight shortlisted titles illuminate untold histories, recover overlooked voices, and invite readers to reconsider how movements for justice and independence have shaped the world we live in today.

Administered by McGill University, the Cundill History Prize is the world’s leading award for history writing. The US$75,000 prize is awarded annually to the book that demonstrates excellence across the prize’s guiding criteria: craft, communication and consequence. The two runners-up each receive US$10,000.

Chaired by Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University and 2022 Cundill History Prize finalist, Ada Ferrer, the 2025 jury includes Sunil Amrith, François Furstenberg, Afua Hirsch, and Francesca Trivellato.

Ada Ferrer, Chair of the Jury, said: “The eight books on our list are all quite different from one another, but all share some essential characteristics: analytical sharpness, engaging writing, and a firm belief that what the past reveals must be urgently understood. The committee is so proud to present this slate of eight books to the world.”

• Emily Callaci (Allen Lane) Wages for Housework: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise

• Kornel Chang (The Belknap Press of Harvard University) A Fractured Liberation: Korea Under US Occupation

• Marlene L. Daut (Knopf) The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe

• Greg Grandin (Penguin Press) America, América: A New History of the New World

• Benjamin Nathans (Princeton University Press) To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement

• Lyndal Roper (John Murray Press) Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War

• Sophia Rosenfeld (Princeton University Press) The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life

• Martha A. Sandweiss (Princeton University Press) The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West

Many titles on this year’s shortlist reflect on the fight for empowerment and independence throughout human history. Emily Callaci’s Wages for Housework traces the emergence of the movement from the 1970s throughout Europe, Africa, America and the Caribbean. Paying particular attention to the lives of women, Sophia Rosenfeld explores the rise of personal choice and its equation with freedom in The Age of Choice. Lyndal Roper uncovers the far-reaching ramifications of the German peasants’ revolt in Summer of Fire and Blood. Kornel Chang highlights the short-lived revolution and hopes for independence in post-war Korea, and Marlene L. Daut tells the story of the most pivotal figure in the Haitian Revolution, Henry Christophe. Additionally, Benjamin Nathans illuminates the struggles between despair and perseverance today in his extraordinary account of the Soviet dissident movement To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause.

Both Greg Grandin’s America, América and Martha A. Sandweiss’s The Girl in the Middle uncover the hidden histories that shaped the Americas, challenging dominant narratives and restoring overlooked voices to the centre of the story. Grandin offers the first definitive history of the Western hemisphere, a sweeping five-century account that redefines our understanding of colonialism, slavery, democracy and revolution across North and South America. Sandweiss, beginning with a haunting photograph of an unnamed Native American girl, reconstructs the life of Sophie Mousseau to reveal how questions of race, identity and belonging defined the United States during Reconstruction and westward expansion.

The three finalists will be announced on Tuesday, September 30, with the winner revealed on Thursday, October 30 as part of the Cundill History Prize Festival in Montreal.

François Furstenberg, Professor of History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at John Hopkins University said: “This year’s Cundill History Prize shortlist demonstrates that great works of history come in many forms. Some approach their subjects biographically, while others offer vast geographic or thematic frames. Some use tiny details to make monumental claims, while others offer fresh interpretations of well-known historical events. All are brilliantly written. All break new ground. None will fail to impress.”

Francesca Trivellato, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Early Modern European History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, said: “Reading each of the eight books on this year’s Cundill History Prize shortlist is an enriching experience. Some are sweeping in scope, while others dissect the lives of obscure figures or take tiny objects as their starting point. Curiously, more than one book demonstrates the significance of minority movements that did not quite achieve their stated goals and yet influenced the course of history in myriad other ways.”

Sunil Amrith, Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History at Yale University, said: “The brilliant books on this year’s shortlist range in scale from the intimate to the epic, and in time from a single event to several centuries. What they share is an exquisite level of craft, and a sense of intellectual urgency.”

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