2016 American Historical Association Book Awards

Unlike other historical association, any historian in the United States can become a member of the AHA. Basically, every historical is represented in the AHA and it is the largest historical association in the United States. Therefore, the AHA awards a massive number of awards to historians. In 2016, the American Historical Association (AHA) awarded 24 book prizes.

While the list is large, it is a great place to find great new history books on a lot of different topics. The breadth of subject of the books on the AHA prizes is remarkable.

The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize in European history from ancient times to 1815

Vittoria Di Palma, Wasteland: A History (Yale Univ. Press, 2014)

The George Louis Beer Prize in European international history since 1895

Vanessa Ogle, The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Jerry Bentley Prize in world history

Michael Goebel, Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)

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

Ann Twinam, Purchasing Whiteness: Pardos, Mulattos, and the Quest for Social Mobility in the Spanish Indies (Stanford Univ. Press, 2015)

The Paul Birdsall Prize in European military and strategic history since 1870

Bruno Cabanes, The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918–1924 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)

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

Hina Azam, Sexual Violation in Islamic Law: Substance, Evidence, and Procedure (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)

The Albert B. Corey Prize in the history of Canadian-American relations or the history of both countries

Robert MacDougall, The People’s Network: The Political Economy of the Telephone in the Gilded Age (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2014)

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

Barak Kushner, Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

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

R. F. Foster (Univ. of Oxford) for Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890–1923 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2015)

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

Alexandra Shepard (Univ. of Glasgow) for Accounting for Oneself: Worth, Status, and the Social Order in Early Modern England (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015)

The Clarence H. Haring Prize for a Latin American who has published the most outstanding book in Latin American history during the preceding five years

Antonio García de León (Univ. Nacional Autónoma de México) for Tierra Adentro, Mar en Fuera: El Puerto de Veracruz y su Litoral a Sotavento, 1519–1821 (Fondo de Cultura Economica USA, 2011)

The Friedrich Katz Prize in Latin American and Caribbean history

Edward Beatty (Univ. of Notre Dame) for Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern Mexico (Univ. of California Press, 2015)

The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize for women’s history and/or feminist theory

Keely Stauter-Halsted (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago) for The Devil’s Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)

The Martin A. Klein Prize in African history

Nancy Rose Hunt (Univ. of Florida and Univ. of Michigan) for A Nervous State: Violence, Remedies, and Reverie in Colonial Congo (Duke Univ. Press, 2015)

The Waldo G. Leland Prize offered every five years for the most outstanding reference tool in the field of history

Father Peter J. Powell (Newberry Library), editor, for In Sun’s Likeness and Power: Cheyenne Accounts of Shield and Tipi Heraldry, 2 vols., by James Mooney (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2013)

The Littleton-Griswold Prize in US law and society, broadly defined

Deborah A. Rosen (Lafayette Coll.) for Border Law: The First Seminole War and American Nationhood (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The J. Russell Major Prize for French history

Ethan B. Katz (Univ. of Cincinnati) for The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize in Italian history or Italian-American relations

Stefano Dall’Aglio (Univ. of Edinburgh) and the late Donald Weinstein (Univ. of Arizona), translator, for The Duke’s Assassin: Exile and Death of Lorenzino de’ Medici (Yale Univ. Press, 2015)

The George L. Mosse Prize in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe since 1500

Thomas W. Laqueur (Univ. of California, Berkeley) for The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains (Princeton Univ. Press, 2015)

The James A. Rawley Prize for the integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century

Tamar Herzog (Harvard Univ.) for Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Premio del Rey in the field of early Spanish history

Núria Silleras-Fernández (Univ. of Colorado Boulder) for Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)

The John F. Richards Prize for South Asian history

Nayanjot Lahiri (Ashoka Univ.) for Ashoka in Ancient India (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)

The Dorothy Rosenberg Prize in the history of the Jewish diaspora

Paul Lerner (Univ. of Southern California) for The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880–1940 (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)

The Wesley-Logan Prize in African diaspora history

Carina E. Ray (Brandeis Univ.) for Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana (Ohio Univ. Press, 2015)

Related DailyHistory.org Articles

• 2016 Organization of American Historians Book Awards
• What Were the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of "Stonewall" Jackson?
• Why Was the Battle of Antietam a Pivotal event in the American Civil War?
• Gilded Age/Progressive Era History Top Ten Booklist
• Was the Destruction Perpetrated by Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman Necessary to End the Civil War?
• The Best Historians and Books According to James McPherson