Submissions Are Closed

Deadline: May 15, 2025

Award Type

Award for Publications

The Leo Gershoy Award is presented annually to the author of the most outstanding work published in English on any aspect of 17th- and 18th-century western European history. The Gershoy Award and the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize (also bestowed by the AHA) are widely considered to be the most prestigious prizes in the field of European history.

The current prize amount is $1,000.

The general rules for submission are:

  1. Only books of high scholarly and literary merit will be considered.
  2. Books with a copyright of 2024 will be eligible for the 2025 award.
  3. Nomination submissions may be made by an author or by a publisher. Publishers may submit as many entries as they wish. Authors or publishers may submit the same book for multiple AHA prizes.
  4. Nominators must complete an online prize submission form for each book submitted. Once you fill out the form you will receive an email with the committee’s contact information.
  5. One copy of each entry must be sent to each committee member and clearly marked “Gershoy Award Entry.” Print copies preferred unless otherwise indicated. If only e-copy is available, please contact review committee members beforehand to arrange submission format.

Please Note: The competition will open in mid-March. Entries must be received by May 15, 2025, to be eligible for the 2025 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2025 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2026 AHA annual meeting in Chicago.

For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.

Leo Gershoy
Leo Gershoy

In 1975 Mrs. Ida Gershoy made a gift to the Association in order to establish a prize in memory of her husband, Leo Gershoy. Professor Gershoy was a specialist in European history associated with the faculty of New York University for more than 35 years.

Current Recipient

Vera Keller, University of Oregon

The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Vera Keller’s brilliant and deeply researched work forces us to rethink long-held assumptions about 17th-century science. Focusing on a diverse cast of characters engaged in “interloping”—deftly leaping from one area of study or business activity to another—Keller turns our attention away from a tidy or contained Scientific Revolution and reveals in its place a rambunctious arena of risky and often violent endeavors.