Vincent P. DeSantis Book Prize
The Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Vincent DeSantis Book Prize
for the best first book published on United States in the period 1865-1920
The Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is calling for submissions for its biennial Vincent DeSantis Book prize. The DeSantis Book Prize is awarded in odd-numbered years for the best book treating any aspect of United States history in the period 1865 to 1920. It must be the author’s first book. The prize is given in honor of Vincent P. DeSantis, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, a distinguished historian of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
Winners of this prize are honored at the annual SHGAPE luncheon and will receive a certificate and an honorarium.
Books written in English and published in the previous two years are eligible. Authors or their publishers should send a published copy of each nominated book to all three members of the prize committee by the postmark deadline of October 15, 2024. A letter of nomination postmarked no later than October 15 is acceptable, as long as the book itself follows shortly thereafter. For books published between October 15 and December 31, 2024, final page proofs may be substituted, but in such cases, a bound copy of the book must be provided to each committee member in January. If a book was published during the eligible period but carries a different copyright date, include a letter of explanation with each copy mailed to the committee members. Please note that in order to be eligible, the nominated work must be an author’s first book.
Mailing addresses for 2025 prize committee will are below – hard copies are preferred, but email addresses are also included for digital submissions (clearly label each entry “2025 DeSantis Book Prize”):
Cameron Blevins, Chair
CU Denver History Department
Campus Box 182
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364
cameron.blevins@ucdenver.edu
Nicole Phelps
UVM Department of History
133 S. Prospect St.
Burlington VT 05405
nphelps@uvm.edu
Andrew Robichaud
BU History Department
226 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
andrewr1@bu.edu
PAST AWARDEES
2023 DeSantis Prize Winner
Cameron Blevins, Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West (Oxford University Press, 2021)
2021 DeSantis Prize Winner
Vincent DiGirolamo, Crying the News: A History of America’s Newsboys (Oxford University Press, 2019)
2021 Honorable Mention
Joshua Specht, Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (Princeton University Press, 2019)
2019 DeSantis Prize Winner
Beth Lew Williams, The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America (Harvard University Press, 2018)
2019 Honorable Mention
Joanna Dyl, Seismic City: An Environmental History of San Francisco’s 1906 Earthquake (University of Washington, 2017)
2017 DeSantis Prize Winner
Megan Birk, Fostering the Farm: Child Placement in the Rural Midwest (University of Illinois Press, 2015)
2017 Honorable Mention
Benjamin Coates, Legalist Empire: International Law and American Foreign Relations in the Early Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, 2016)
2015 DeSantis Prize Winner
Cara Caddoo, Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life (Harvard University Press, 2014)
2013 DeSantis Prize Winner
Julia C. Ott, When Wall Street Met Main Street: The Quest for an Investors’ Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2011)
2011 DeSantis Prize Winner
David Sussman, Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music (Harvard University Press, 2009)
2009 DeSantis Prize Winner
David Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War (Harvard University Press, 2008)
2009 Honorable Mention
Charles Postel, The Populist Vision (Oxford University Press, 2007)
Become a member
Membership in SHGAPE affords you a place in the primary professional network of Gilded Age and Progressive Era scholars. Your membership gains you entry into a vibrant and growing community and helps to advance your understanding of a critical period in American history. As a self-supporting organization, SHGAPE depends on its members to continue its current activities and take on new initiatives
Learn More