The 2022 shortlist recognises the scholarly contribution and quality of six excellent history monographs published in 2021.
- Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire by Emily Baughan (University of California Press)
- Histories of Everyday Life: The Making of Popular Social History in Britain, 1918-1979 by Laura Carter (Oxford University Press)
- Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland: An Archaeology by Tracy Collins (Cork University Press)
- Imperial Bodies in London: Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880–1914 by Kristin D. Hussey (University of Pittsburgh Press)
- Memory and the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Early Modern England by Harriet Lyon (Cambridge University Press)
- ‘The First National Museum’: Dublin’s Natural History Museum in the Mid-Nineteenth Century by Sherra Murphy (University of Cork Press)
The Prize offers £1000 to the author of a first monograph in the field of British and Irish history.
THE WINNER OF THIS YEAR’S WHITFIELD PRIZE WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON FRIDAY 22 JULY, ALONG WITH RECIPIENTS OF THE SOCIETY’S OTHER 2022 AWARDS — FOR PUBLISHING, TEACHING AND RESEARCH.
It has been a pleasure judging this year’s Whitfield and Gladstone book prizes. The judges for both prizes noted that there were some truly excellent books which did not make the shortlist, and would like to congratulate all the authors on their thoughtful, engaging, and rigorous work. We find this year’s Whitfield and Gladstone shortlists particularly exciting and inspiring.
For each prize, we have chosen works which ask big questions, make critical interventions in their fields, and demonstrate imaginative engagement with the demands of historical research, and with the world around us. Individually, they are impressive and powerful works of history. Collectively, they point towards some creative and important new directions in the study of the past.
Dr Emily Robinson, Chair of the Whitfield Prize Committee, 2022
Professor Simon MacLean, Chair of the Gladstone Prize Committee, 2022
About the Prize
The Whitfield Prize was established by the Royal Historical Society in 1976 at the bequest of Professor Archibald Stenton Whitfield, who was a Fellow of the Society until his death in 1974. It is one of the Royal Historical Society’s two annual book awards.
Titles eligible for the 2022 Prize will be
- its author’s first solely written history book;
- on a subject within a field of British or Irish history;
- an original and scholarly work of historical research by an author who received their doctoral degree from a British or Irish university;
- published in English during the calendar year 2021.
Find out more about the Prize, and its previous winners, on the RHS website.
ALSO AVAILABLE: THE 2022 GLADSTONE BOOK PRIZE SHORTLIST
The RHS Gladstone Prize is awarded to a first monograph in the field of European or World History. This year’s shortlist of six titles is also now available, with the winner announced on Friday 22 July.
