In 2014 the American Historical Association established the Jerry Bentley Prize in World History, awarded annually to the best book in each calendar year in the field of world history.
The current prize amount is $1,000.
The general rules for submission are:
- Any book published in English dealing with global or world-scale history, with connections or comparisons across continents, in any period will be eligible.
- Books bearing a copyright of 2024 are eligible for the 2025 prize.
- 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 “Bentley 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. 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.
Jerry Bentley
The prize honors Jerry Bentley’s tireless efforts to promote the field of world history, and his signal contributions to it. A professor at the University of Hawaii, Bentley was one of the leading figures in the world history movement and the founding editor of the Journal of World History.
Past Recipients
Current Recipient
Sureshkumar Muthukumaran, National University of Singapore
The Tropical Turn: Agricultural Innovation in the Ancient Middle East and the Mediterranean (Univ. of California Press)
Sureshkumar Muthukumaran’s ambitious examination of the multidirectional circulation of crops and fauna from South Asia to the Middle East and Mediterranean offers a groundbreaking environmental history of the long-distance connections that webbed the ancient world. Marshaling an impressive array of archaeological and historical evidence, in a variety of ancient languages, this extraordinary work allows us to reconceptualize antiquity within the framework of world history and pushes us to expand our chronologies of global interconnection.