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.
The general rules for submission are:
- Only books of high scholarly and literary merit will be considered.
- Books with a copyright of 2025 will be eligible for consideration for the 2026 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. Once you fill out the form you will receive an email with the committee’s contact information.
- 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: The competition will open in mid-March 2026. Entries must be received by May 15, 2026, to be eligible for the 2026 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2026 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2027 AHA annual meeting in New Orleans.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
William E. Littleton and Frank Tracy Griswold
In 1927, a gift of $25,000 from Mrs. Frank T. Griswold created the Littleton-Griswold Fund "to honor the memory of my father, William E. Littleton, and of my husband, Frank Tracy Griswold, and in appreciation of the beauty of their minds."
Past Recipients
Current Recipient
Alison L. LaCroix, University of Chicago Law School
The Interbellum Constitution: Union, Commerce, and Slavery in the Age of Federalisms (Yale Univ. Press)
Gorgeously crafted and scrupulously researched, this original synthesis introduces the “interbellum constitution”: an era, stretching from 1815 to 1865, marked by ferment over the overlapping, unsettled boundaries of local, state, and federal power in the United States. Alison LaCroix is utterly persuasive in analyzing the competing “federalisms” that drove public debates over concurrent powers, the regulation of commerce, and states’ rights. Her book illuminates a constitutional maximalism more dynamic, peopled, and capacious than we knew.