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Longlist announced: 2009 Cundill International Prize in History

Published: 21 September 2009

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

The longlist was chosen from 138 entries submitted to the jury representing some 78 publishing houses from around the world. The titles are:

Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
by Woody Holton (Farrar, Sraus and Giroux)

The Reaper's Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery
by Vincent Brown (Harvard University Press)

The Comanche Empire

by Pekka Hämäläinen (Yale University Press)

The Sacco-Vanzetti Affair: America on Trial
by Moshik Temkin (Yale University Press)

Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory
by Lisa Jardine (Harper Publishers)

Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History
by Karl Jacoby (The Penguin Press)

A History of Histories : Epics, Chronicles, Romances and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth Century
by John Burrow (Allen Lane, Penguin Press)

God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215
by David Levering Lewis (W. W. Norton Publishers)

Champlain's Dream: The Visionary Adventurer Who Made a New World in Canada
by David Hackett Fischer (Knopf Canada)

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
by Alex Ross (Farrar, Sraus and Giroux)


The prize, now in its second year, will be awarded on Nov. 1 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 on Oct. 16.

"Our judges considered 138 books from a highly competitive, wide-ranging field and have settled on 10 strong books for this year's longlist," said Dean of Arts Christopher P. Manfredi, who serves as the Cundill Jury Administrative Chair. "On behalf of Peter Cundill and McGill University, I would like to extend my congratulations and wish each of the authors the very best of luck."

Stuart B. Schwartz was named last year's winner for his book, All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World, published by Yale University Press. Prof. Schwartz will give the first Cundill Prize Lecture on Nov. 2, preceded by the public announcement of this year's winner and a panel discussion between the shortlisted authors.  

The 2009 jury includes Professors Angela Schottenhammer (Munich/Mexico); and Roger Chartier (Paris); President of the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation, Timothy Aitken; Canadian author Denise Chong; Senator Serge Joyal; and Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Maclean's Magazine, Kenneth Whyte.

The Cundill International Prize and Lecture in History at McGill University was established in 2008 by McGill alumnus and renowned investment manager F. Peter Cundill. It is administered by McGill University 's Dean of Arts, with the help of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC).

F. 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

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