In 1984 the Council of the American Historical Association established an award entitled the Award for Scholarly Distinction. The awards go to senior historians of the highest distinction who have spent the bulk of their professional careers in the United States.

2021
Darlene Clark Hine, Michigan State Univ. and Northwestern Univ.
Teofilo Ruiz, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Peter N. Stearns, George Mason Univ.

2020
David Levering Lewis, New York Univ.
Leslie P. Peirce, New York Univ.
David Warren Sabean, Univ. of California, Los Angeles

2019
Mary Elizabeth Berry, Univ. of California, Berkeley
Evelyn S. Rawski, Univ. of Pittsburgh

2018
Martin Jay, Univ. of California, Berkeley
Charles Maier, Harvard Univ.
Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton Univ.

2017
Richard Dunn, Univ. of Pennsylvania
John Merriman, Yale Univ.

2016
Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia Univ.
Colin Palmer, Princeton Univ.

2015
Ira Berlin, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
Asuncion Lavrin, Arizona State Univ.

2014
Keith Baker, Stanford Univ.
Susan Mann, Univ. of California, Davis
Jan Vansina, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

2013
John Dower, Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
Patricia Ebrey, Univ. of Washington
Walter LaFeber, Cornell Univ.

2012
Alfred Crosby, Univ. of Texas at Austin
Sheila Fitzpatrick, Univ. of Chicago and Univ. of Sydney
Donald Worster, Univ. of Kansas

2011
Donald Kelley, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick

2010
Susan Naquin, East Asian studies, Princeton Univ.
Peter Stansky, Frances and Charles Field Prof., Stanford Univ.

2009
Leon Litwack, America, Univ. of California, Berkeley
Saul Friedlander, Univ. of California, Los Angeles

2008
Joseph Harris, Howard Univ.
Michael Kammen, Cornell Univ.
Joan Scott, Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton Univ.

2007
Martin Duberman, Distinguished Prof. emeritus, Lehman Coll. and Graduate Center, CUNY
Jack Greene, Andrew W. Mellon Prof. emeritus, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Anne Scott, W. K. Boyd Prof. emerita, Duke Univ.

2006
David Davis, Yale Univ.
Lloyd Gardner, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
Fritz Stern, Columbia Univ.

2005
Lawrence Levine, Univ. of California, Berkeley
Nancy Siraisi, Hunter Coll., CUNY
David Underdown, Yale Univ.

2004
John Pocock, Harry C. Black Prof. emeritus, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., City Univ. of New York

2003
Thomas Clark, Univ. of Kentucky
Peter Gay, Yale Univ.
Wallace MacCaffrey, Harvard Univ.

2002
Elizabeth Eisenstein, Univ. of Michigan
John Higham, American cultural and political, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Richard McCormick, American political, Rutgers Univ.

2001
Nikki Keddie, Middle East social/intellectual/gender, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Ernest May, American foreign policy, Harvard Univ.
Robert Remini, early America and Andrew Jackson, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago

2000
Ramsay MacMullen, Roman Empire, Yale Univ.
Arno Mayer, modern Europe, Princeton Univ.

1999
Earl Pomeroy, US West, Univ. of Oregon
Eugen Weber, modern France, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Gerhard Weinberg, Germany, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

1998
Tulio Halperin-Donghi, post-18th-century Latin America and Argentina, Univ. of California, Berkeley
Robert Paxton, modern France, Columbia Univ.

1997
Alfred Chandler, Jr., American economic and business, Harvard Univ.
August Meier, African American, Kent State Univ.
Benjamin Schwartz, China, Harvard Univ.

1996
H. Stuart Hughes, modern European intellectual, Univ. of California, San Diego
George Mosse, Europe, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
Barbara Stein, Latin America and Brazil, Princeton Univ.
Stanley Stein, Latin America and Brazil, Princeton Univ.

1995
Lawrence Stone, Tudor Stuart England social/comparative, Princeton Univ.

1994
George Kennan, US diplomatic, Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton Univ.
H. Leon Prather, Sr., US South and African American, Tennessee State Univ.
Nicholas Riasanovsky, Russia, Univ. of California, Berkeley

1993
Brian Tierney, medieval, Cornell Univ.
Emma Thornbrough, African American, Butler Univ.

1992
George Woolfolk, African American, Prairie View A&M Coll.

1991
Gerhart Ladner, medieval art and church, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
Gerda Lerner, 19th-century American social and women, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
Carl Schorske, modern Europe, Princeton Univ.
Chester Starr, Jr., ancient, Univ. of Michigan
Merze Tate, US diplomatic and international, Howard Univ.

1990
Nettie Benson, Latin America/Mexico, Univ. of Texas, Austin
Margaret Judson, British constitutional, Douglass Coll., Rutgers Univ.
Kenneth Setton, medieval and Renaissance, Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton Univ.

1989
Paul Kristeller, Renaissance, Columbia Univ.
Caroline Robbins, English political and constitutional, Bryn Mawr Coll.
Kenneth Stampp, Civil War and Reconstruction, Univ. of California, Berkeley

1988
Helen Edmonds, African American, North Carolina Central Univ.
Edwin Reischauer, Japan, Harvard Univ.
Sylvia Thrupp Strayer, medieval England/Europe, Univ. of Michigan

1987
Angie Debo, Native American, independent scholar
John Hall, Tokugawa Period Japan, Yale Univ.
Benjamin Quarles, African American and anti-slavery movement, Morgan State Univ.

1986
Woodrow Borah, Latin America and colonial Mexico, Univ. of California, Berkeley

1985
Felix Gilbert, Europe and history of political ideas, Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton Univ.
Edmund Morgan, America, Yale Univ.