The AHA General Meeting will take place Friday, January 7, 2005, at 8:30 p.m. in Grand Ballroom C of the Sheraton Seattle. President-elect James Sheehan (Stanford Univ.) will announce the recipients of the following prizes and awards:

Herbert Baxter Adams Prize: Named for one of the Association's founding members and its first secretary, this prize was established in 1903 for works in the field of European history. It is offered annually for an author's first substantial book, and the chronological coverage alternates between the early European period one year and the modern period the next. The 2004 prize is awarded for the early European period, ancient to 1815.

AHA Prize in Atlantic History: The Prize in Atlantic History was created in 1998 in accordance with the terms of a gift from James A. Rawley, Carl Adolph Happold Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. It is offered annually to recognize outstanding historical writing that explores aspects of integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century.

George Louis Beer Prize: Established in 1932 by a bequest from Professor Beer, a historian of the British colonial system before 1765, this prize is offered annually in recognition of outstanding historical writing in European international history since 1895.

Albert J. Beveridge Award: This award was established in 1939 in memory of Senator Beveridge of Indiana, through a gift from his wife and donations from AHA members from his home state. It is awarded annually for the best English-language book on American history (United States, Canada, or Latin America) from 1492 to the present.

Paul Birdsall Prize: The Birdsall Prize, established in 1985, is awarded biennially for a major work in European military and strategic history since 1870.

James Henry Breasted Prize: Established in 1985, this prize, named in honor of James Henry Breasted, a pioneer in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern history and president of the Association in 1928, is offered for the best book in English in any field of history prior to 1000 A.D. The prize was endowed by Joseph O. Losos, a longtime member of the Association.
Albert Corey Award: This prize, cosponsored by the AHA and the Canadian Historical Association, is awarded biennially for the best book on Canadian-American relations or the history of both countries. It was first given in 1967. The 2004 prize was announced at the June 2004 Canadian Historical Association meeting in Winnipeg.

John E. Fagg Prize: The American Historical Association confers the John E. Fagg Prize for the best publication in the history of Spain, Portugal, or Latin America, in honor of Professor Fagg, who taught Latin American history at New York University from 1945 to 1981.

John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History: Established in 1968 by friends of John K. Fairbank, an eminent historian of China and a president of the AHA in 1967, the prize is an annual award offered for an outstanding book in the history of China proper, Vietnam, Chinese Central Asia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, or Japan substantially after 1800.

Herbert Feis Award: Established in 1982, this annual prize, named after Herbert Feis (1893–1972), public servant and historian of American foreign policy, recognizes the outstanding work of public historians or independent scholars.
Morris D. Forkosch Prize: The AHA offers this prize annually in recognition of the best work in English on the field of British, British imperial, or British Commonwealth history since 1485. The prize was established in 1987.

Leo Gershoy Award: Established in 1975 by a gift from Ida Gershoy in memory of her late husband, this annual prize is awarded to the author of the most outstanding work in English on any aspect of the fields of 17th- and 18th-century western European history.

Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History: This annual prize was established in 1983 by the Committee on Women in the Historical Profession and the Conference Group on Women's History (now the Coordinating Council for Women in History) and is administered by the AHA. It is offered for the best work in women's history and/or feminist theory.

Littleton-Griswold Prize: Established in 1960, this annual prize is awarded for the best book in any subject on the history of American law and society.

J. Russell Major Prize: The Major Prize is awarded annually for the best work in English on any aspect of French history. It was established in 2000 in memory of J. Russell Major, a distinguished scholar of French history who served on the history faculty at Emory University from 1949 until his retirement in 1990.

Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize: Established in 1973, the Marraro Prize is offered annually for the best work in any epoch of Italian history, Italian cultural history, or Italian-American relations.

George L. Mosse Prize: The Mosse Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding major work of extraordinary scholarly distinction, creativity, and originality in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe since the Renaissance. It was established in 2000 by former students, colleagues, and friends of Professor Mosse, eminent scholar of European history.
The Premio del Rey Prize: This prize is awarded biennially for a distinguished book in English in the field of early Spanish or Hispanic history and culture, 500–1516 A.D. The prize was established in 1990.

The James Harvey Robinson Prize: This prize, established in 1978, is awarded biennially for the teaching aid that has made the most outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history in any field for public or educational purposes. “Teaching aid” encompasses textbooks, source and reference materials, audiovisuals, computer-assisted instruction, and public history or museum materials.

Wesley-Logan Prize: The Wesley-Logan Prize in African Diaspora History is sponsored jointly by the AHA and the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. The AHA Committee on Minority Historians established the prize in 1992 in memory of two early pioneers in the field, Charles H. Wesley and Rayford W. Logan. It is awarded annually for an outstanding book on some aspect of the history of the dispersion, settlement, and adjustment and/or return of peoples originally from Africa.

Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Secondary Teaching: This prize is awarded annually for excellence in teaching techniques and knowledge of the subject of history at the post-secondary level.

Beveridge Family Teaching Prize for K–12 Teaching: Established in 1995 to recognize excellence and innovation in elementary-, middle-, and secondary-school history teaching. Awarded on a two-year cycle rotation: individual and group. The 2004 prize will be awarded to an individual.

John E. O'Connor Film Award: In recognition of his exceptional role as a pioneer in both teaching and research regarding film and history, the AHA established this award in 1991 in honor of John E. O'Connor, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University at Newark. The award recognizes outstanding interpretations of history through the medium of film or video.

Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award: Established in 1992 by friends of Nancy Lyman Roelker to honor mentors in history, the award is offered on a three-year rotation. The 2004 award is for precollegiate mentors.

Awards for Scholarly Distinction: Established in 1984, this annual award recognizes senior historians of the highest distinction who have spent the bulk of their professional careers in the United States.

Honorary Foreign Member: This honor is conferred upon foreign scholars distinguished for their work in the field of history and assistance to the work of American historians in the scholar's country.

Troyer Steele Anderson Prize: This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement of the purposes of the Association.

President's Address: After the presentation of awards and honors, AHA President Jonathan Spence (Yale Univ.) will deliver his presidential address, “Cliffhanger Days: A Chinese Family in the Seventeenth Century.” Spence will reflect on the ways that a family history can have many levels of meaning in addition to the narrative line that it purports to present. Especially when the family lives in troubled times, every detail of its apparent history can be read allegorically in terms of the fate of a social class or even of an entire country. It is by way of such an interpretive reading, Spence will argue, that we can best understand the interlocking sets of short family biographies written by the Chinese scholar Zhang Dai (1597–c. 1680). Zhang was a wealthy aesthete, collector, poet, and historian, and a man who sought pleasure where he could find it. But in 1644 the dynasty under which he had lived heretofore, the Ming (1368–1644), was overthrown by conquerors from the north. Zhang lost his home and his possessions, and was forced to live the remainder of his life in poverty. It was in the early 1650s that he began work on the biographies of his family, focusing on the weaknesses that lay at the heart of their apparent strength, and at the ways that the analysis of flaws and obsessions should be used as the main entry point for our assessments of human achievements and failures.

Reception: following the meeting, members are invited to attend the presidential reception in the Sheraton's West Ballroom.