The Cundill History Prize Winner

Kathleen DuVal    

   An election was held south of our border and you may need a distraction from it. I have been busy and the weather nice so the only thing I will offer quickly is an update to the Cundill post immediately below this one.
   The winner of the approximately $100,000 (CDN) is the American historian Kathleen DuVal and her book is: Native Nations: A Millenium in North America (the London Public Libraries have copies, but they are all out as I write.) She is also the author of, Independence Lost and The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
   For more about the Cundill see my post below. The winning announcement is available at the Cundill website at McGill. The folks in the History Department at UNC are happy as you will see here. 
  Among the news announcements see: "Kathleen DuVal Wins $75k Cundill History Prize, by Melina Spanoudi, The Bookseller, Oct. 31, 2024. 

"The winning book is the culmination of a 25-year project, in which DuVal shows how, before colonisation, Indigenous peoples adapted to climate change and instability. The author refutes that the arrival of Europeans led to the end of Indigenous civilisations in North America, demonstrating the relationships that developed between nations.
Lisa Shapiro, dean of the faculty of the Arts at McGill, added: “DuVal’s winning book truly embodies the Cundill History Prize’s aims. It is not only an outstanding achievement in historical scholarship, but it also engages the reader and dramatically reorients our perspectives on North America. It demonstrates the real significance of history writing.”

GOOD BOOK AWARDS

 The Scotiabank Giller Prize and The Cundill History Prize

   There is a great deal written about the JUNOS, EMMYS and OSCARS, but not so much about awards given to the writers of books. As a Canadian you may have heard about "The Gillers", perhaps because the winner this year will be announced by Rick Mercer tomorrow night at 9 on the CBC. It is awarded for a work of fiction, whereas, the little-known, "The Cundill", is for a non-fictional historical work.

   You will be relieved that I will not write much more, mainly because the official websites of each provide all the information you need, so you can stop here if you wish: "The Scotiabank Giller Prize." "The Cundill History Prize."

   The longlist for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize consisted of 145 titles and the 5 finalists were announced on September 6 and they are:

"Sarah Bernstein for her novel Study For Obedience, published by Knopf Canada

Eleanor Catton for her novel Birnam Wood, published by McClelland & Stewart

Kevin Chong for his novel The Double Life of Benson Yu, published by Simon & Schuster

Dionne Irving for her short story collection, The Islands: Stories, published by Catapult

CS Richardson for his novel All The Colour in the World, published by Knopf Canada."

   The one bit of information I will call to your attention is that the author of the work bolded above, Eleanor Catton, was born in London, Ontario. That fact was reported by the Associated Press and published by CTV News ten years ago when she won "The Man Booker Prize" for The Luminaries " ("London, Ont.-born Writer Eleanor Catton Wins Man Booker Prize," CTV NEWS, Oct. 15, 2023.)

  Why was she born in London? The answer to such a question is the reason why you are reading MM. Her father, Philip, was a part-time instructor at UWO, got his Ph.D and later taught there as you will see from his Curriculum Vitae. His dissertation, if you must know: Science and the Systematicity of Nature : A Critique of Nancy Cartwright's Doctrine of Nature and Natural Science. If you are now curious about Nancy Cartwright, you are on your own. Apparently he has since moved on from philosophy to civil engineering! Kudos to both of them.

   Information about "The Cundill History Prize" is hosted by McGill and if you look at the link provided, do also view, "The Cundill History Hub." Back in 2017 I discussed this prize, which at that time was the richest one in the world for a work of non-fiction (and probably still is - $75,000) See, "Christmas Shopping for Historians."

   The winner does not have to be Canadian, by the way, and this year she is: Tania Branigan for, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution." It may even be readable, given that:

"The prize reminds academic historians that there is a general reading public that wants to read serious history. So much scholarship nowadays is written for purely professional purposes: articles and books written for other specialists who then proceed to cite it in their own works. The more citations and downloads you have, the more “impact” you have, even if no schoolteacher of history (let alone a bank manager, engineer, or dentist) is ever going to read a word you have written. To some extent, this is right and proper: academics do need to satisfy their peers. But history as a discipline shouldn’t, in my view, take refuge in academe. The Cundill History Prize encourages historians who write for a general audience. Long may it continue!"

F. Peter Cundill

 

   Every couple of years I have posted about the Cundill History Prize, which is a very good one to win. Today the short list for 2021 has just been released and is provided here. The winner will be announced on Dec.2. 

Rebecca Clifford, Survivors: Children's Lives After the Holocaust.
Marie Favereau, The Horde: How Mongols Changed the World.
Marjoleine Kars, Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast. 

                                                    The 2020 Shortlist

      In 2020, these three books were shortlisted: Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War, by Vincent Brown; The Anarchy; The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, by William Dalrymple and Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, by Camilla Townsend. Ms. Townsend won. 

The 2020 Winner

   For lists of past nominees and winners see: Christmas Shopping for Historians (2017) and The Cundill History Prize (2019). 

   If you are shopping for more history books that have won prizes, here are some other places to look:

American Historical Association - list many different prizes for historical works in various categories. 

Canadian Historical Association - includes prize winning books and articles.  One prize is named after Professor Wallace K. Ferguson who taught at Western.

The Wolfson History Prize is a prestigious British one. 

Penguin Books publishes many others. See: Award Winners- History.

Source:  The Cundill History Prize. McGill University. 

The Cundill History Prize

  Looking For A Good History Book or For Good News For History Majors?

The winner was just announced - she is Julia Lovell for Maoism: A Global History
"Julia Lovell’s Maoism: A Global History has won the Cundill History Prize. The nearly $100,000 prize ($75,000 U.S.), administered by McGill University, is awarded to the best English-language history writing.
Lovell is a British writer and translator and a professor on modern China at the University of London. In Maoism, she writes about the impact of the political ideology around the world and how it continues to influence China.
In his citation, historian Alan Taylor, the jury chair, called Maoism a “revelation” for the way in which it demonstrates the ideology’s influence on disparate societies including Peru, Indonesia, Europe, and the U.S."

A couple of years ago I called to your attention the Cundill Prize in my post, Christmas Shopping for Historians where I discussed the prize and some of the past winners. The winner for this year has just been announced. For more details about the prize and Mr. Cundill see this website at McGill University. Here are some data about the 2019 nominees.

THE LONGLIST FOR THE 2019 CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE

The 14 titles chosen were announced June 25, 2019. On Sept. 20, the nominees were reduced to 8. On October 17th it was revealed that the 3 finalists were all women: Mary Fulbrook, Jill Lepore and Julia Lovell.

Sunil Amrith
Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History
Basic Books (US), Allen Lane (UK)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)

Helen Berry
Orphans of Empire: The Fate of London's Foundlings
Oxford University Press (UK)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)

David Blight
Frederick Douglass: American Prophet
Simon & Schuster (US)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)

Mary Fulbrook
Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice
Oxford University Press (UK)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)
"In Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest of Justice (Oxford University Press), the Professor of German History at UCL Mary Fulbrook explores the lives of both the victims and the perpetrators of the Holocaust. A lifetime achievement by one of the most renowned experts in the field, this encompassing work – which won the UK’s Wolfson History Prize earlier this year – expands our understanding of the Holocaust, and its lingering aftermath."

Jay Geller
The Scholems: A Story of the German-Jewish Bourgeoisie from Emancipation to Destruction
Cornell University Press (US)

Toby Green
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)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)

Ramachandra Guha
Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948 
Random House Canada (Canada), Allen Lane (UK), Penguin Random House (US), Penguin India (India)

Victoria Johnson
American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic
Liveright Publishing (US)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)

Jill Lepore
These Truths: A History of the United States 
W. W. Norton & Company (US)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)
"With These Truths: A History of the United States (W. W. Norton & Company), the Harvard Professor and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore delivers an ambitious one-volume history of the United States which places truth itself – a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence – at the centre of the nation’s history. Taking the reader up to the election of Donald Trump, this magisterial account is a reckoning with the beauty and tragedy of American history."

Julia Lovell
Maoism: A Global History 
The Bodley Head (UK), Knopf (US)
(Chosen as one of the top 8 on Sept. 20, 2019)
"From the tea plantations of north India to the sierras of the Andes, from Paris’s fifth arrondissement to the fields of Tanzania, Julia Lovell, Professor of Modern China at Birkbeck College, University of London, delivers a re-evaluation of Maoism as a significant global force in her sweeping Maoism: A Global History (The Bodley Head, Knopf). This landmark history arrives at a time when disagreements and conflicts between China and the West are on the rise, and the need to understand the political legacy of Maoism is urgent and growing."

Steve Luxenberg
Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation
W. W. Norton & Company (US)

Jonathan Phillips
The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin 
The Bodley Head (UK), Yale University Press (US)

Alexandra Popoff
Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century
Yale University Press (US)

Sue Prideaux
I am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche 
Faber & Faber (UK), Tim Duggan Books (US)

Christmas Shopping for Historians

(Clio - Muse of History)

Cundill History Prize

     I happened to notice recently this headline: “British Historian Daniel Beer Wins 2017 Cundill History Prize” (by Chris Hampton in the Globe and Mail, Nov. 16, 2017). I did not know about this prize, nor did I know that it is the richest one in the world that is awarded for a work of non-fiction ($75,000 real dollars). Since it is the 10th anniversary of the award and since we should all be shopping I thought I would learn a little more about it while perhaps finding out about some good history books to buy as gifts.

     McGill University administers the Cundill History Prize which “recognizes and rewards the best history writing in English.” At the site linked above you will find a list of the past prize winners as well as the other contenders. The winner this year is The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars by Daniel Beer. The runners-up are: Vietnam: A New History and The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century.

     F. Peter Cundill graduated from McGill and was a successful investor. He died in 2011. If you are more interested in Mr. Cundill and investing than in history you could have a look for his intriguingly titled biography: Routines and Orgies: The Life of Peter Cundill by Christopher Risso-Gill.  Mr. Risso-Gill also wrote, There's Always Something to Do: The Peter Cundill Investment Approach.

    If you require more choices for good history books, or if you are, like me, simply trying to avoid shopping then go to this omnibus site where you can spend the rest of your day: American Historical Association Announces 2017 Winners. Here are some of the awards listed along with the historical category:

The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize for an author’s first book in European history from 1815 through the 20th century

The George Louis Beer Prize in European international history since 1895

The Jerry Bentley Prize in world history

The Albert J. Beveridge Award on the history of the United States, Latin America, or Canada, from 1492 to the present

The James Henry Breasted Prize in any field of history prior to CE 1000

The John H. Dunning Prize for an author’s first or second book on any subject relating to United States history

The Morris D. Forkosch Prize in the field of British, British imperial, or British Commonwealth history since 1485

The Leo Gershoy Award in the fields of 17th- and 18th-century western European history

The John K. Fairbank Prize for East Asian history since 1800

    The winner of this prize is Vietnam: A New History by Christopher Goscha (Univ. du Québec à Montréal). As noted, this book was a Cundill finalist this year.

Post Script:

   Apart from the usual sources see also:

“Peter Cundill, a Canadian investment star, dies at 72:The Cundill Value Fund, started in 1974, still boasts a double-digit return after a lost decade for global stocks.” by Ellen Roseman, Toronto Star, Jan 28, 2011.

“Peter Cundill found wealth where others feared to tread,” Philip Fine, G&M, Feb. 17, 2011.

 And here is the usual bonus information:

Mr. Cundill was a proponent of ‘Value Investing’, a subject of interest to some at the Ivey Business  School at Western University where you can find a video by Mr. Cundill. 

And if you think it unusual that someone in commerce could be interested in history, see my earlier post about the “Schulich-Woolf Rare Book Collection”.