Cundill International Prize in History longlist announced

The jury for the Cundill International Prize in History at McGill, the world’s largest non-fiction historical literature prize, has announced the longlist for this year’s inaugural prize.

The longlist of 15 books was chosen from 171 entries submitted to the jury representing some 75 publishing houses from around the world. The titles are:

• Remembering the Year of The French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory by Guy Beiner (University of Wisconsin Press)
• The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915 by Sarah Carter (University of Alberta Press/Athabasca Press)
• Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World by Matthew Connelly (Harvard University Press)
• Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age by Harold J. Cook (Yale University Press)
• After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000 by John Darwin (Allen Lane/Penguin Press)
• The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 by Saul Friendlander (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche (Harvard University Press)
• India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society by Leor Halevi (Columbia University Press)
• Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire by Judith Herrin (Princeton University Press)
• The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism by Erez Manela (Oxford University Press)
• Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes by Gregg Mitman (Yale University Press)
• All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World by Stuart Schwartz (Yale University Press)
• How Jesus Became Christian by Barrie Wilson (Random House of Canada Limited)
• Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery by Jason R. Young (Louisiana State University Press)

The prize, established by McGill alumnus Peter Cundill’s Cundill Foundation, was inaugurated in April. It will be awarded on November 25 to an author who has published a book determined to have a profound literary, social and academic impact on the subject. The university will grant the equivalent of one full prize of $75,000 U.S. and two “Recognition of Excellence” awards of $10,000 U.S. The shortlist will be announced in October.

“I’m sorry that Peter Cundill can’t be here today,” said Senator Michael Meighen, a friend of Peter Cundill’s who played an instrumental role in the creation of the prize, at today’s announcement. “On his behalf, I want to thank the university for making this such a great success, especially in its first year. Good luck to all the entrants.”

This year’s jury includes President of the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation, Timothy Aitken; Canadian writer Denise Chong; Senator Serge Joyal; professors Angela Shottenhammer (Munich); Roger Chartier (Paris); and Natalie Zemon Davis (Toronto).

Peter Cundill FCA, CFA is the Principal of The Cundill Group, a global investment management firm with offices in Vancouver and Bermuda and representation in London and Japan. His career in investment management spans more than 40 years since he graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1960. A native of Montreal, he has lived in London, England, for the past 30 years.

On the Web: https://www.mcgill.ca/cundillprize