Waldo G. Leland Prize
Next Award Year: 2026
The submission deadline has passed. Awardees are announced in the fall, and the next contest will begin in spring 2026.
This prize, established by the AHA Council in 1981, is offered every five years for the most outstanding reference tool in the field of history. It is named after Waldo G. Leland, a distinguished contributor to bibliographical guides, who served as secretary to the Association from 1909 to 1920.
“Reference tool” encompasses bibliographies, indexes, encyclopedias, and other scholarly apparatus. The award is honorific. See the list of past recipients.
The general rules for submission are:
- Books with an copyright between 2021 and 2025 will be eligible for the prize in 2026.
- 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 “Leland 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, 2026, to be eligible for the 2026 competition. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2026 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2027 AHA annual meeting.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
This year's submission deadline has passed.
The prize submission form for the next competition will be posted by March 15 for submissions due May 15.
2021 Leland Prize
Thomas Spear, University of Wisconsin–Madison
The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Historiography: Methods and Sources, editor (Oxford Univ. Press)
An extraordinary achievement of interdisciplinary innovation, international collaboration, temporal depth, and ecological breadth, the Oxford Encyclopedia of African Historiography surveys, assesses, and models pathbreaking methods for the understanding of human and nonhuman history throughout and beyond the African continent. From anthropology and archaeobotany in the Bantu-speaking regions to digital resources and oral histories among the Zulu, this expansive, well-indexed, and pedagogically inspiring volume showcases sophisticated and cutting-edge contributions from multidisciplinary, transgeographical Africanist scholarship past and present.