James Henry Breasted Prize
Established in 1985 and named in honor of James Henry Breasted, a pioneer in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern history and president of the Association in 1928, this prize is offered for the best book in English in any field of history prior to CE 1000. The prize was endowed by Joseph O. Losos, a longtime member of the Association. The general rules for submission are:
- Only books of a high scholarly nature should be submitted. Research accuracy, originality, and literary merit are important factors.
- Only books bearing a copyright of 2016 will be eligible for the 2017 award.
- Nominators must complete an online prize submission form for each book submitted.
- One copy of each entry must be sent to each committee member and clearly labeled “Breasted Prize Entry.” Electronic copies may be sent only to committee members who have indicated they will accept them.
Please Note: Entries must be received by May 15, 2017, to be eligible for the 2017 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2017 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2018 AHA annual meeting in Washington, DC.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
The deadline for this year’s submissions has passed. Review committee contact information and the prize submission form for the next prize year will be posted by March 31.
2015 Breasted Prize
Nicolas Tackett, Univ. of California, Berkeley
The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy (Harvard Univ. Asia Center)
Tackett’s strikingly original monograph explains the rapid disappearance of China’s bureaucratic aristocracy amid the Tang dynasty’s collapse in the late ninth century. Blending traditional analysis of texts such as poetry and tomb epitaphs with the novel methods and approaches of GIS mapping and social-network theory, Tackett composes a detailed, elegant sketch of an elite that long proved remarkably adaptable to the upheavals of the late Tang, even if it could not finally resist the destructive violence of rebellion.