Littleton-Griswold Prize
The submission deadline has passed. Awardees are announced in the fall, and the next contest will begin in the spring.
The Littleton-Griswold Prize is an annual award for the best book in any subject on the history of American law and society, broadly defined. In 1961, the Littleton-Griswold Fund Committee created the prize for studies in the legal history of the American colonies and of the United States prior to 1900. The prize was not awarded, however, until 1966, and was abolished the following year. In 1985, the Council revived the prize and expanded the scope to cover all of American history.
The current prize amount is $1,000. See the list of past recipients.
The general rules for submission are:
- Only books of high scholarly and literary merit will be considered.
- Books with a copyright of 2021 will be eligible for consideration for the 2022 award.
- 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.
- 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 “Littleton-Griswold Prize 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: Entries must be received by May 15, 2022, to be eligible for the 2022 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2022 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2023 AHA annual meeting in Philadelphia.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
This year's submission deadline has passed.
The review committee contact information and prize submission form for the next competition will be posted by March 1 for submissions due May 15.
2020 Littleton-Griswold Prize
Sarah Seo, Columbia Law School
Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom (Harvard Univ. Press)
Although often perceived as a symbol of American freedom, the automobile also functioned as a vehicle for the expansion of policing over the course of the 20th century in Sarah Seo’s masterfully written book. Drawing on key cases originating throughout the United States, Policing the Open Road demonstrates that judges have granted increasing authority to police officers making traffic stops and pursuing vehicular arrests, often inadvertently. Consequently, law enforcement officials enjoy unprecedented authority over all drivers today and, as Seo argues, practice discriminatory and unconstitutional policing on American highways and streets to much of the nation’s dismay.