Awards for Scholarly Distinction

In 1984 the Council of the AHA established an award entitled the American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction. Nominees are senior historians of the highest distinction in the historical profession who have spent the bulk of their professional careers in the United States. Previous awards have gone to Nettie Lee Benson, Woodrow Borah, Angie Debo, Helen G. Edmonds, Felix Gilbert, John W. Hall, Margaret Atwood Judson, George F. Kennan, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Gerhart B. Ladner, Gerda Lerner, Edmund Morgan, H. Leon Prather, Sr., Benjamin Quarles, Edwin O. Reischauer, Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Caroline Robbins, Carl E. Schorske, Kenneth M. Setton, Kenneth M. Stampp, Chester E. Starr, Lawrence Stone, Merze Tate, Emma Lou Thornbrough, Brian Tierney, and George R. Woolfolk.

Joining this distinguished list in 1996 were H. Stuart Hughes (Univ. of California at San Diego), George L. Masse (Univ. of Wisconsin), and Barbara and Stanley Stein (Princeton Univ.) AHA president-elect Joyce Appleby read the following citations at the general meeting.

“H. Stuart Hughes, professor emeritus at the University of California at San Diego, has a strong claim to be the finest intellectual historian of Europe of his generation. He formally began his career at Brown University, having earlier won his PhD. at 'Harvard. After serving in the army from 1941 to 1948, Professor Hughes returned to academic life, first at Harvard, then at Stanford University. He subsequently returned to Harvard, where from 1969 to 1975 he held the Gurney Chair of History and Political Science. Since 1975, he has been professor of history at the University of California at San Diego, becoming emeritus in 1986.

"Stuart Hughes's copious research and writing explore the intellectual history of modern Europe. His two earliest works, An Essay for Our Times (1950) and Oswald Spengler: A Critical Estimate (1952), broke ground for later investigations. In 1958, he published Consciousness and Society, a major piece of scholarship dealing with the reorientation of European social thought after 1890. This study of the 'cluster of genius' that formed in Europe at the turn of the century established him as the best known and most widely read intellectual historian of Europe in the United States. Consciousness and Society began a trilogy for which Hughes would become best known. The sequel, The Obstructed Path: French Social Thought in the Years of Desperation, 1930-1960 (1968), continued the analysis of the French intellectual tradition through this century. A third volume, The Sea Change: The Migration of Social Thought, 1930-1965, appeared in 1975, and dealt with the intellectual migration from central Europe to England and the United States.

“As a teacher, both of graduate students and undergraduates, Stuart Hughes enjoyed the highest reputation. In less than two decades at Harvard, he became the dissertation supervisor of about 50 students, of whom more than half ultimately published at least one monograph. Hughes's interest in teaching is further demonstrated by three other books he published. Contemporary Europe: A History (1961) went through five editions and, in its day, was more widely used in the United States than any other general treatment of 20th-century European history. These books were followed by The United States and Italy (1953) and History as Art and as Science (1964). In all, Professor Hughes has authored 12 books, 6 in the field of intellectual and cultural history, 2 general histories, 3 volumes of essays, and an autobiography.

"As a scholar-teacher and as a colleague, Stuart Hughes has made enduring contributions to our profession, and he stands today as one of the great academic leaders of his generation. The American Historical Association is honored to present him with the Award for Scholarly Distinction."

"George L. Mosse's impact on the profession has been, and continues to be, unique, since he is still influencing a generation of students that have not had the privilege of studying with him. Professor Masse began his teaching career in 1945 at the University of Iowa. He moved to the University of Wisconsin in 1955, where he served as the John C. Bascom Professor from 1965 to 1982 and the Weinstein-Bascom Professor from 1982 until he became emeritus in 1988. He has also served as Koebner Professor of History at the Hebrew University from 1978 until he became emeritus in 1985. Although he has been retired for well over 10 years, he has continued to teach at Cambridge University and in Israel, and, most recently, filled a distinguished chair for visiting scholars at Cornell University.

“George Mosse's scholarship has been pioneering. In his research and writing, and in his more than 20 books, he has always written on large subjects of wide intellectual and scholarly significance. When, during the 1960s and 1970s the lines between social,' intellectual, and political history were frequently rigid, he preferred to focus instead on the fluidity with which cultural myths and symbols are filtered both upward and downward. He was among the first to abandon a traditional history-of-ideas approach, studying not only major intellectual figures, but third-or fourth-rate propagandists. Well before the issue even arose, he was remarkably prescient in recognizing and articulating the view that the point of contact between high and low culture is the best place to investigate the relationship between politics and culture. During the 1960s he was one of the very first modem historians to define culture in the broader anthropological sense, considering public festivals, rituals, and liturgy as valid historical sources of popular experience and collective mentalities.

"In his own main field, the study of European fascism, George Mosse is rightly considered one of the earliest scholars to identify the cultural origins of fascism in the antiliberal political mythology of the fin de siecle. As early as 1964, when that view was by no means accepted, Professor Mosse wrote The Crisis of German Ideology, one of the first books to place racial doctrine and ideology at the center of National Socialist ideology. Its themes were subsequently elaborated in The Nationalization of the Masses (1975) and Towards the Final Solution (1977). His book Nationalism and Sexuality (1985) was one of the few works by scholars of his generation to make use of the then-new women's and gay histories. His textbooks on the Reformation and the later period, such as The Culture of Western Europe, have assumed almost classic status. More recently, he has written one of the first broadly gauged books on the European idea of 'manliness—The Image of Man—once again before that theme has become fashionable.

"George Mosse has also been influential as the coeditor of an important journal, The Journal of Contemporary History, which he founded in 1966 with Walter Laqueur. In the last three decades, the JCH has published countless articles of distinction, seized on new themes for investigation, and opened its pages to the work of younger scholars.

"The Association is honored to recognize a scholar whose range is so broad and whose influence is so pervasive. Professor Mosse has taken up some of the most difficult historical themes of our time and established models for the generations that follow."

"Since the early 1940s, Barbara and Stanley Stein have been a remarkable research team, authors of some of the most important works across a very broad span of Latin American social and economic history. Barbara Hadley Stein was the first of the pair to win a fellowship to study in Brazil, and it was she who traveled there to begin work on the dynamics of abolitionism after receiving the first scholarship ever given by the State Department to a woman to study in Latin America. It was during her travels to archives in Sao Paulo that she met a young student named Stanley Stein just beginning graduate work at Harvard in Romance Languages. Following their marriage in 1943, Stanley Stein served in the U.S. armed forces during World War. II and then returned to complete his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1951. In 1953 Stanley Stein was appointed to an assistant professorship at Princeton University. Barbara Stein later enrolled at Rutgers University and completed a master's degree in library science.

"The Steins returned to Brazil to carry out the fieldwork that was the basis for the magisterial study, Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1900 (1957). This work—which 40 years after its publication is still assigned in courses from the introductory to the doctoral level-broke more new ground than its early readers could even appreciate. Never before or since has a team of scholars been able to study Brazilian slavery using the powerful combination of notarial records and oral histories of former slaves themselves.

"Upon returning from Brazil, Stanley Stein published a careful study of the Brazilian cotton industry, The Brazilian Cotton Manufacture. In 1970 the Steins published, this time with formal joint authorship, the pioneering synthetic work, The Colonial Heritage of Latin America. This work marked a turning point in Latin American historiography. It was seen to represent 'the dependency approach’ a systematic interpretation much influenced by the work of Latin American economists and social critics. At the same time, it was grounded in an immense knowledge of the specifics of 18th-and 19th-century history. The 25th anniversary of this work was commemorated at a scholarly conference in December 1995, and its impact was reflected in the range and distinction of the participants in that conference.

"The Steins subsequently turned back to detailed studies of the late colonial period, tracing the networks of merchants and the policies of the crown in the complex relationship between Mexico and Spain as the colony moved toward rupture with the metropolis. This research has now yielded a monographic work by Barbara Stein, to be published in Spanish, and a four-volume work by both of the Steins, Merchants and Monarchs.

"Their remarkable career of publications has been matched by a powerful partnership in the formation of a younger generation of scholars. Since his appointment at Princeton in 1953, Stanley Stein ha worked with dozens of aspiring doctoral students. Barbara Stein became the Latin American bibliographer at the Firestone Library at Princeton, developing one of the most remarkable collections of Latin American printed materials in the United States. In this capacity she assisted in the training in research methods of Latin Americanist students at Princeton.

"This Award for Scholarly Distinction marks the Association's respect for two brilliant pioneers. In addition, as the first joint award ever given, it acknowledges the shared enterprise of Barbara and Stanley Stein's scholarly work. As noted by a longtime colleague, 'The Steins are a superb intellectual team, still active, still inspiring, hardly matched in academia today. Much as the word "model" is overworked, it is true that the Steins are a model for us all, a marriage of both intellect and intellectual passion.' The AHA is privileged to present the Award for Scholarly Distinction to Barbara and Stanley Stein."

Asher Distinguished Teaching Award

The Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award recognizes outstanding history teaching and advocacy on behalf of history teaching at two-year, four-year, and graduate colleges and universities. The Society for History Education shares with the AHA sponsorship of the award, which recognizes inspiring teachers whose techniques and mastery of subject matter made a lasting impression and substantial difference to students of history. Professor Appleby presented the 1996 Asher Distinguished Teaching Award to John Barber (Ball State Univ.) and read the following citation.

"John Barber ... continually challenges his students by utilizing pedagogical techniques to stimulate critical thinking and by encouraging independent study. He offers tutorials to students as well as periodic instruction about study methods to enhance their learning. His teaching is marked by an innovative and enticing method of instructional delivery, and his style radiates energy and warmth to his students. In turn, Professor Barber's students are motivated to learn and to discover. In his essay, Professor Barber noted that he selected and used new elements of instruction—slides, overhead transparencies, videos, simulation, readers' theater, literature, music, the visual arts, guest scholars, and special interest speakers—with the intention of revealing the vital relevance of history, creating the highest possible level of interest in the field, and promoting intense thought and active discussion about the record of the past.' The American Historical Association is pleased to 'Present the 1996 Asher Distinguished Teaching Award to John Barber."

Beveridge Family Teaching Prize

This prize, which was given for the first time in 1996, recognizes excellence and innovation in elementary, middle, and secondary school history teaching, including career contributions and specific initiatives. The recipient can be recognized either for individual excellence in teaching or for an innovative initiative applicable to the entire field. It is offered on a two-cycle rotation. In even-numbered years, it is awarded to an individual; in odd-numbered years, it is given to a group.

President-elect Appleby presented the first Beveridge Prize conferred by the AHA to Heidi Raupp of Aspen, Colorado. The AHA Committee on Teaching Prizes cited Ms. Raupp "for her excellence in teaching; for her work in bringing university and secondary history teachers together; for her efforts in promoting the idea and importance of world history; for her unbounded energy, creativity, and enthusiasm for her profession; and for her openness to the new ideas that she incorporated into her teaching and introduced to her peers in professional organizations. Through her professional involvement, leadership, and teamwork, Ms. Raupp has been a 'teacher of teachers.' She has fostered curiosity and generated excitement among her colleagues as well as her students. As Ms. Raupp noted in her essay, 'My activities in the classroom and within the profession demonstrate my contribution to students and to my profession at the local, regional, national and international levels.' The Association is pleased to confer the first Beveridge Family Teaching Prize to Heidi Raupp."

O'Connor Film Award

The John O'Connor Film Award seeks to recognize outstanding interpretations of history through the medium of film or video. Essential elements are stimulation of thought, imaginative use of the media, effective presentation of information and ideas, sensitivity to modem scholarship, and accuracy. The fourth O'Connor Award was presented to Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press, produced and cowritten by Rick Goldsmith. President-elect Appleby read the committee's citation.

"This biography of one of the most remarkable American journalists of the 20th century is a wonderful evocation of radical thought and polemic in the decades between the two World Wars and in the immediate post-World War II years. Through interviews, quotations, photographs, and film footage there is created a sharp but affectionate picture of a man and his age."

Roelker Mentorship Award

This annual award recognizes and encourages the human component in the teaching of history. With this award, the AHA attests to the special role of mentors in the future of the historical profession. Nominations for the 1996 prize were for the undergraduate level. President-elect Appleby read the following citation.

"The Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award was established to honor teachers of history who taught, guided, and inspired their students in a way that changed their lives. The award is given on a three-cycle rotation to graduate, undergraduate, and secondary school teacher mentors., Mentoring is an important part of the history discipline because it inspires students to pursue the field of history, provides them with the necessary guidance to become productive and fulfilled scholars and teachers in the field, and fosters a continuing tradition of excellence in the historical discipline.

"Terry L. Seip of the University of Southern California is the recipient of the fifth Roelker Mentorship Award for excellence in mentoring undergraduate students. Professor Seip is noted for being a gifted and approachable teacher, mentoring and supporting students of all abilities and interests, and creating an innovative mentoring program for faculty at his institution. In the words of one student, 'Professor Seip is dedicated to each and every one of his students-past and present.' Another student noted that 'the only problem with getting in to see Dr. Seip is the seemingly perpetual line of students waiting outside his door. But the meeting with him is always well worth the wait.' 'Thanks to my mentorship experience with Dr. Seip,' said another student, 'I came to understand the true meaning of ideals like discipline, honor, and hard work' According to a colleague, 'Terry Seip spends more time working directly with undergraduates than any other instructor I have ever encountered.' In receiving this award, Terry L. Seip honors the historical discipline and the many fine teachers who daily impart their love of history to students and serve as their wise and loyal friends, guardians, and counselors."

Honorary Foreign Member

This award is made annually to honor a foreign scholar who is distinguished in his or her field and who has "notably aided the work of American historians." President-elect Appleby announced the addition of Frantisek Smahel, professor of medieval history and head of the Department of Medieval Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University, in Prague. Dr. Smahel also serves as the director of the Historical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

"In the estimation of almost all of those whom he has worked with, Frantisek Smahel is the foremost expert on the Hussite epoch in Bohemia currently active. He has made important contributions to Hussite studies in nearly every scholarly genre: catalogues of sources, editions of texts, specialized research articles, handbook articles, essays, and broad-ranging syntheses. One measure of Dr. Smahel's value to the profession is the frequency with which scholars in other countries seek him out and find him helpful. He is a frequent guest at international conferences and has assisted visiting scholars in using manuscripts in officially closed libraries and in expediting procedures in obtaining documents. Professor Smahel has been helpful to foreign scholars seeking advice about their work or about navigating the difficulties of Czech academic and scholarly life. In supporting Dr. Smahel's nomination, fellow medievalists call him 'the foremost expert worldwide on one of the most formative episodes in the whole history of Europe .... Since the fall of communism, he has played the largest single part in reorganizing Czech historiography and restoring proper academic standards. Dr. Smahel has successfully overcome the long-time restrictions of a closed communist world and emerged as one of Europe's leading historians.'

"The AHA is honored to acknowledge Professor Smahel's role in the international community of historians by selecting him as the Honorary Foreign Member for 1996."

1996 Book Awards

At the annual meeting in New York, the following prizes were announced for the year 1996. The committees' citations are recorded below.

Adams Prize

The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize honors works in the history of the Eastern Hemisphere. It is offered annually for an author's first substantial book. The chronological coverage alternates between the early European period one year and the modern period the next. In 1996 it was awarded for the ancient European period, up to 1815. Prize committee members were Jan E. Goldstein chair (Univ. of Chicago); Seymour Drescher (Univ. of Pittsburgh); Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia (New York Univ.); Sabine MacCormack (Univ. of Michigan); and Kathryn L. Reyerson (Univ. of Minnesota). The recipient was Mary C. Mansfield, The Humiliation of Sinners: Public Penance in Thirteenth-Century France, Cornell Univ. Press (1995).

"In this superb melding of spiritual/psychological with pragmatic/social inquiry, the late Mary C. Mansfield invites medievalists and early modernists to look afresh at late medieval religion and its relation to the construction of the public and private spheres. Through meticulous research into a wide variety of sources—theology, canon law, liturgy, chronicles, and the rich body of northern French pontificals—she demonstrates that the inauguration of confession and individual penance by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 did not, as is usually thought, eclipse the ritual of public penance. Rather, that ritual evolved, carving out a new middle ground between extreme interiority (the secret life of the soul seen only by God) and extreme exteriority (the older practice of purifying the whole community through the expiatory scapegoating of the few). That new middle ground was private life, 'a world of obligations to family and neighbors, to customers and employers, to debtors and creditors,' destined for a long career in the West."

Beveridge Award

The Albert J. Beveridge Award is presented annually for the best book in English on American history (United States, Canada, or Latin America) from 1492 to the present. 1996 prize committee members were Michael McGerr, chair (Indiana Univ.); Toby Ditz (Johns Hopkins Univ.); Stephen Haber (Stanford Univ.); John F. Schwaller (Univ. of Montana); and Helena M. Wall (Pomona Call.). The recipient was Alan Taylor (Univ. of California at Davis), William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, Alfred A. Knopf (1995).

"The American Revolution brought a questioning of the values and institutions of the colonial past, breaking down in the process many of the barriers that had bounded the economic and political ambitions of individuals of modest social origins. That redefinition of social roles, coupled with the expansion of the nation into the frontier, gave rise to a more competitive social order. Alan Taylor's William Cooper's Town is fundamentally a study of how that more competitive social order took shape in a specific locale (western New York) and was embodied in particular individuals, in this case William Cooper, the father of James Fenimore Cooper. At a time of increasing fractionalization and specialization in the writing of history, the committee was particularly impressed by Taylor's ability to weave together social, economic, political, and literary approaches. The result is a work that not only evokes time and place with verisimilitude but also speaks to a broad audience across the humanities and social sciences."

Birdsall Prize

The Paul Birdsall Prize is offered biennially for a major work in European military and strategic history since 1870. Prize committee members were Christon Archer, chair (Univ. of Calgary); David A. Rosenberg (Temple Univ.); and Leonard V. Smith (Oberlin Call.) The recipient was David G. Herrmann (Tulane Univ.), The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War, Princeton Univ. Press (1996).

"David Herrmann's outstanding study, The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War, is military and diplomatic history researched and written on the grand scale. Herrmann's impressive broad-ranging research in many different countries and archives, his sophisticated analyses, and his rich narrative link the military and strategic events leading up to World War I. This study blends and refines military, political, and technological history to produce a clearly written, insightful, and thoroughly elegant interpretation that will influence all historians of the period."

Breasted Prize

The James Henry Breasted Prize is offered on a four-year chronological cycle for the best book in English in any field prior to A.D. 1000. The 1996 prize was for a book in European history. Prize committee members were Ernst Badian, chair (Harvard Univ.); William Harris (Columbia Univ.); and Gabrielle Spiegel (Johns Hopkins Univ.) The recipient was William E. Klingshirn (Catholic Univ. of America), Caesarius of Aries: The Making of a Christian Community in Late Antique Gaul, Cambridge Univ. Press (1994).

"Drawing on archaeology, anthropology and historical sources, Klingshirn recreates the work of the sixth-century bishop Caesarius, setting the problem of creation of a Christian community within the realities, practices, and resistances of a late Roman city. His book offers new insights into the processes by which the late Roman world adapted Christianity to its own religious conceptions."

Fairbank Prize

The John K. Fairbank Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding book on the history of China proper, Vietnam, Chinese Central Asia, Mongolia, Korea, or Japan since the year 1800. Prize committee members were Sheldon Garon, chair (Princeton Univ.); Pamela Crossley (Dartmouth Coll.); Stefan Tanaka (Univ. of California at San Diego); Hoyt Cleveland Tillman (Arizona State Univ.); and Jeffrey Wasserstrom (Indiana Univ.). The recipient was David G. Marr (Australian National Univ.), Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Univ. of California Press (1995).

“David Marr presents a compelling, richly documented account of the chain of events that culminated in the rise of Communist power in Vietnam during 1945. This is a study of historical contingency at its best. Rather than impute this monumental change solely to revolutionary planning by the Indochinese Communist Party, the author profiles the complex relationships among French colonial authorities, Japanese occupiers, U.S. and British strategists, Chinese Nationalists, and a host of Vietnamese players including the Viet Minh. The voices of each set of actors come through loud and clear in this riveting drama. The book marks a major contribution to the study of the Vietnamese revolution and revolution in general."

Feis Award

The Herbert Feis Award recognizes the recent work of public historians or independent scholars. Prize committee members were Linda Martz, chair (Georgetown Univ.); Elizabeth Faue (Wayne State Univ.); John Le Donne (Cambridge, Mass.); Kenneth Maxwell (Council on Foreign Relations); and Francisco Scarano (Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison). The recipient was David W. Conroy (Weymouth, Mass.), In Public Houses: Drink and the Revolution of Authority in Colonial Massachusetts, Univ. of North Carolina Press (1995).

"David Conroy's book, sensitive to the interaction between civic culture and political movements, is lucidly written and well argued. By focusing on the original topic of "the popular culture of drink," the author presents an often neglected dimension of elite-plebian relations in 18th-century Massachusetts. The book is solidly grounded in primary research as well as in historiographic debates concerning popular culture and its larger repercussions. The reader gains from this work a fuller understanding of the multiple challenges to authority that beset the revolutionary era."

Gershoy Award

The Leo Gershoy Award is given annually to the author of the most outstanding work in English on any aspect of the field of 17th-and 18th-century European history. Prize committee members were Helen Nader, chair (Univ. of Arizona); Martha Howell (Columbia Univ.); Harry Liebersohn (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran (Cruz) (Georgetown Univ.); and Pamela Smith (Pomona Coll.). The recipient was Isabel V. Hull (Cornell Univ.), Sexuality, State, and Civil Society ill Germany, 1700-1815, Cornell Univ. Press (1996).

"Isabel Hull analyzes social norms and regulatory behavior in south and southwest Germany through the lens of sexual concerns. She reveals the centrality of sexuality debates to civil society. Hull's most impressive achievement is to delineate a dark side to the German Enlightenment that will influence future study of German intellectual and cultural history."

Haring Prize

The Clarence Haring Prize is awarded every five years for the best work by a Latin American scholar in Latin American history. Prize committee members were Linda B. Hall, chair (Univ. of New Mexico); Silvia Arrom (Brandeis Univ.); and Karen Powers (Arizona Univ.). The recipient was Joao Jose Reis (Federal Univ. of Bahia, Brazil), A morte e uma festa: Ritos funebres e revolta popular no Brasil do seculo XIX, Companhia das Letras (1993).

"Joao Jose Reis's A morte e uma testa uses the riot that destroyed the new cemetery in Salvador, Bahia, in 1836 as a prism for examining attitudes and practices—African, Portuguese, and uniquely Brazilian—surrounding death and burial during the first half of the 19th century. It is thoroughly researched in primary sources and written with an eye to the telling detail. This elegant interpretation is urban social history at its best."

Kelly Memorial Prize

The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize is awarded annually for the best work in women's history and/or feminist theory. It was established by the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession and the Conference Group on Women's History (now the Coordinating Council for Women in History), and is administered by the AHA. Prize committee members were Virginia Scharff, chair (Univ. of New Mexico); Isabel Hull (Cornell Univ.); Dennis Romano (Syracuse Univ.); Anne Scott (Duke Univ.); and Ann Twinam (Univ. of Cincinnati). The recipient was Ann B. Shteir (York Univ.), Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science: Flora's Daughters and Botany in England, 1760 to 1860, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press (1996).

"Ann B. Shteir's Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science brings together the history of women and the history of science with depth and grace. Carefully researched and elegantly presented, this study of women's contributions to, and exclusion from, the scientific field of botany helps us understand more about the ways ideas about human nature, and the literary genres in which those ideas are put forth, affect our explanations of what we call 'nature.'"

Leland Prize

The Waldo G. Leland Prize is offered every five years for an outstanding history reference tool. Committee members were John Bell Henneman, chair (Princeton Univ. Library); Clayborne Carson (Stanford Univ.); and JoAnn McNamara (Hunter College, City Univ. of New York). The recipient was Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, 5 vols.; Barbara A. Tenenbaum (Library of Congress), editor in chief, Charles Scribner's Sons (1996).

"This monumental project furnishes information on individuals and on cultural and political institutions well beyond the more famous ones. It gives a laudable and unusual amount of attention to Brazil. The 832 contributors, drawn from more than 20 countries, include a heavier concentration of senior scholars than one finds in other encyclopedias. The excellent bibliographies include recent works in English. This set should render obsolete most, if not all, previous reference works on Latin America."

Littleton-Griswold Prize

The Littleton-Griswold Prize is offered annually for the best book in any subject on the history of American law and society. Committee members were Laura Kalman, chair (Univ. of California at Santa Barbara); Sarah Barringer Gordon (Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Schoo1); James Henretta (Univ. of Maryland at College Park); Stanley Kutler (Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison); and Leonard W. Levy (Ashland, Ore.). The recipient was Daniel R. Ernst (Georgetown Univ. Law Center), Lawyers agail1st Labor: From Individual Rights to Corporate Liberalism, Univ. of Illinois Press (1995).

"Daniel Ernst's Lawyers against Labor is a model of historical scholarship, blending legal, constitutional, labor, political, and intellectual history in an elegantly crafted exploration of legal pluralism in the early 20th century. Concentrating on the lawyers and legal thought of the American Anti-Boycott Association, an employers' organization dedicated to impact litigation, it tells a story that links business and politics to law, and chronicles what the book's subtitle aptly describes as a shift in focus 'from individual rights to corporate liberalism.' The tale qualifies the traditional understanding of labor law before the New Deal, demonstrating that employers' defeats were many and their victories often Pyrrhic, but nevertheless real and meaningful. Engagingly written, exhaustively researched, and carefully argued, Lawyers against Labor is major revision of American history."

Marraro Prize

The Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize is offered annually for the best work in any epoch of Italian history, Italian cultural history, or Italian-American relations. Prize committee members were Alice Kelikian, chair (Brandeis Univ.); Alexander J. Grab (Univ. of Maine at Orono); and Paul Grendler (Univ. of Toronto). The recipient was T.C. Price Zimmermann (Davidson Coll.), Paolo Giovio: The Historian and the Crisis of Sixteenth-Century Italy, Princeton Univ. Press (1995).

"T.C. Price Zimmermann has written an engaging, colorful, and highly original account of the Italian bishop and historian Paolo Giovio (1486-1552). Zimmermann integrates Giovio's world of battles, courts, and humanist courtiers within the spectrum of High Renaissance culture. If as historian and humanist, he took up the anti-Augustinian battles of the Quattrocentro, this ecclesiastical careerist was caught in the changing temper of the Counter Reformation. Zimmermann has produced an elegantly written, well-documented, and penetrating biography."

Del Rey Prize

The Premio del Rey Prize is awarded biennially to distinguished books in English in the field of early Spanish history. It covers the medieval period in Spain's history and culture, A.D. 500-1515. Prize committee members were Paul H. Freedman, chair (Vanderbilt Univ.); Ida Altman (Univ. of New Orleans); Jodi Bilinkoff (Univ. of North Carolina at Greensboro); Thomas Bisson (Harvard Univ.); and Joan C. Ullman (Univ. of Washington at Seattle). The recipient was David Nirenberg (Rice Univ.), Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, Princeton Univ. Press (1995).

"Communities of Violence is a provocative and extremely thoughtful assessment of the growth of violence against Jews, Muslims, and lepers in southern France and Aragon-Catalonia. It is the result of impressive archival research into everyday conflicts. Nirenberg questions the supposed growth of a persecutorial mentality by looking at how violence was manipulated, as opposed to simply focusing on instances of apparent mass hysteria."

Robinson Prize

The James Harvey Robinson Prize is awarded biennially for the teaching I''::~ that has made the most outstanding ~'·.utribution to the teaching and learning 1r'history in any field for public or educational purposes. Prize committee members were Ellen Ross, chair (Ramapo Coll.); George K. Behlmer (Univ. of Washington at Seattle); Edmund Burke (Univ. of California at Santa Cruz); Anne Chapman (Western Reserve Academy); and Michael P. Monteon (Univ. of California, San Diego). The recipient was H-Net: Humanities Online, based at Michigan State Univ. Richard J. Jensen (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago), executive director; Mark Lawrence Kornbluh (Michigan State Univ.), chair, executive committee.

"The prize committee's selection in 1996 is the electronic forum H-Net: Humanities Online. The 58 H-Net discussion groups include many focused primarily on issues and materials related to teaching. H-Net's gratis services connect teachers from all over the world and at all levels. Correspondents discuss pedagogical issues, exchange syllabi, and share examination questions. H-Net has already had a tremendous impact on the teaching of history, and its impact on the profession seems destined to increase in the years ahead."

Wesley-Logan Prize

The Wesley-Logan Prize in African 1. Diaspora History is sponsored jointly by the AHA and the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History (ASALH). It is awarded annually for an outstanding book on some aspect of the history of the dispersion, settlement, and adjustment and/or return of peoples originally from Africa. Prize committee members were Arvarh E. Strickland, chair (Univ. of Missouri at Columbia); Richard J. M. Blackett (Indiana Univ.); Cynthia Neverdon-Morton (Coppin State Coll.); Colin A. Palmer (Graduate Center, City Univ. of New York); and P. Sterling Stuckey (Univ. of California at Riverside). The recipient was Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo (Saint Mary's Coll.), Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community, Univ. of North Carolina Press (1996).

"Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo's engagingly written study is a significant contribution to the recent conceptual models in interpreting migration and urbanization. The book treats cultural, social, and economic forces, as well as race, class, and gender in black migration. The author argues convincingly that southern cultural traditions were key elements in the migrants' work, social, and cultural experiences in their new homes."

Corey Prize

The Albert Corey Prize is sponsored jointly by the AHA and the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) to honor the best book dealing with the history of Canadian-American relations or the history of both countries. The prize was awarded at the CHA's annual meeting in June 1996 to Ernest Clarke for The Siege of Fort Cumberland 1776: An Episode in the American Revolution, McGill-Queen's Univ. Press (1995). Prize committee members were Reginald Stuart, chair (Mount Saint Vincent Univ.); Peter Baskerville (Univ. of Victoria); Joseph A. Boudreau (San Jose State Univ.); and Stuart Givens (Bowling Green State Univ.).

Editor's Note: By committee decision, the George Louis Beer Prize for the best book on European international history since 1895 was not awarded for 1996. Prize committee members were Tyler Stovall, chair (Univ. of California at Santa Cruz); Philip Nord (Princeton Univ.); Stanley Payne (Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison); Gaines Post, Jr. (Claremont McKenna Coll.); and Pamela Radcliff (Univ. of California at San Diego).