Book Prizes
The Association awards two annual prizes for outstanding books in social science history.
Presidents Book Award (Best Book by Early Career Scholar in Previous Year)
A $1000 prize is awarded annually for a meritorious first work by an early-career scholar. Entrants are judged on scholarly significance, interdisciplinary reach, and methodological innovativeness within monographs analyzing past structures and events and change over time. Books with a copyright date of the previous year that are published within eight years of the author’s Ph.D. are eligible for consideration.
Please visit the Presidents Book Award for more information.
2025 Winner: Sophie Salvo, Articulating Difference: Sex and Language in the German Nineteenth Century University of Chicago Press (2024)
Honorable Mentions:
Kevin P. Donovan, Money, Value, and the State: Sovereignty and Citizenship in East Africa Cambridge University Press (2024)
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State Stanford University Press (2024)
Learn more and see a list of past winners »
Allan Sharlin Memorial Book Award (Outstanding Book in Social Science History to Honor the Memory of Allan Sharlin in Previous Year)
A $1,000 prize is awarded annually for an outstanding book in social science history to honor the memory of Allan Sharlin. Allen exemplified the finest traditions of social science history. His training and scholarship were broadly interdisciplinary and he used both quantitative and more traditional methodologies. Books published in the previous year are eligible for consideration.
Please visit the Allan Sharlin Memorial Book Award for more information.
2025 Winner: Dagmar Herzog The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany’s Twentieth Century Princeton University Press (2024)
Honorable Mentions:
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State Stanford University Press (2024)
Benjamin Breen, Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science Grand Central Publishing/Hachette (2024)
Paper Prizes
The Association promotes high quality scholarship through its awards program, which recognize the best work by a younger scholar and the best work by any scholar in our many fields submitted to our annual conference. The two paper prizes are given only for papers published in Social Science History during the previous year. The winning papers are selected by the journal’s editorial board.
Founder’s Prize (Best Overall Article in Previous Year)
2024 Winner: Dave Hacker, Martin Dribe and Jonas Helgertz, “Wealth and Child Mortality in the Nineteenth-Century United States: Evidence from Three Panels of American Couples, 1850–1880.” Vol. 47, Issue 3
Honorable Mentions:
- Sanne Muurling, Tim Riswick, Katalin Buzasi, “The Last Nationwide Smallpox Epidemic in the Netherlands: Infectious Disease and Social Inequalities in Amsterdam, 1870–1872.” Vol. 47, Issue 2
- Amaury de Vicq and Christiaan van Bochove, “Historical Diversity in Credit Intermediation: Cosignatory Lending Institutions in Europe and North America, 1700s–1960s.” Vol. 47, Issue 1
2023 Winner: Daniel Seligson and Anne E. C. McCants “Polygamy, the Commodification of Women, and Underdevelopment.” Social Science History Volume 46, Issue 1 (Spring 2022), pp. 1-34.
Learn more and see a list of past winners »
Graduate Student Paper Prize (Best Article by a Graduate Student in Previous Year)
2024 Winner: Emre Amasyalı (grad student), “Protestant Missionary Education and the Diffusion of Women’s Education in Ottoman Turkey: A Historical GIS Analysis.” Vol. 46, Issue 1
Honorable Mention: Daniel Scott Smith, “Social Scientization and the Schooling State in UK Parliamentary Discourse, 1803–1909.” Vol. 46, Issue 1
2022 Winner: Kerice Doten-Snitker “Contexts of State Violence: Jewish Expulsions in the Holy Roman Empire.” Social Science History Volume 45, Issue 1 (Spring 2021), pp. 131-163.