The 2025 Cundill History Prize Shortlist
From activism for women’s rights to the lives of Soviet dissidents, from the struggle for liberation in Korea and Haiti to a sixteenth century peasants’ revolt that shook Europe, the shortlist for the 2025 Cundill History Prize highlights books that uncover neglected histories and speak to our current context of conflict, protest and the concern with freedom across the globe.
Selected from a record number of over 400 international submissions, the eight shortlisted titles illuminate untold histories, recover overlooked voices, and invite readers to reconsider how movements for justice and independence have shaped the world we live in today.
Administered by McGill University, the Cundill History Prize is the world’s leading award for history writing. The US$75,000 prize is awarded annually to the book that demonstrates excellence across the prize’s guiding criteria: craft, communication and consequence. The two runners-up each receive US$10,000.
Chaired by Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University and 2022 Cundill History Prize finalist, Ada Ferrer, the 2025 jury includes Sunil Amrith, François Furstenberg, Afua Hirsch, and Francesca Trivellato.
Ada Ferrer, Chair of the Jury, said: “The eight books on our list are all quite different from one another, but all share some essential characteristics: analytical sharpness, engaging writing, and a firm belief that what the past reveals must be urgently understood. The committee is so proud to present this slate of eight books to the world.”
- Emily Callaci (Allen Lane) Wages for Housework: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise
- Kornel Chang (The Belknap Press of Harvard University) A Fractured Liberation: Korea Under US Occupation
- Marlene L. Daut (Knopf) The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe
- Greg Grandin (Penguin Press) America, América: A New History of the New World
- Benjamin Nathans (Princeton University Press) To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement
- Lyndal Roper (John Murray Press) Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War
- Sophia Rosenfeld (Princeton University Press) The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life
- Martha A. Sandweiss (Princeton University Press) The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West
