The Royal Historical Society’s First Book Prize 2025 recognises the scholarly contribution and quality of history monographs published in 2024.
This year’s shortlist of eight titles is now available and follows an open call for early career historians to submit a first sole-authored monograph, published last year, for consideration.
Two final winners of the 2025 prize will be announced in July.
The 2025 shortlist recognises the scholarly contribution and quality of eight history monographs published in 2024.
Royal Justice and the Making of the Tudor Commonwealth, 1485-1547, by Laura Flannigan (Cambridge University Press)
Intimate Subjects: Touch and Tangibility in Britain’s Cerebral Age, by Simeon Koole (University of Chicago Press)
Female Servants in Early Modern England, by Charmian Mansell (British Academy / Oxford University Press)
The Capital Market of Manila and the Pacific Trade, 1668-1838: Institutions and Trade during the First Globalization, by Juan Jose Rivas Moreno (Palgrave MacMillan)
Segregated Species: Pests, Knowledge, and Boundaries in South Africa, 1910–1948, by Jules Skotnes-Brown (Johns Hopkins University Press)
The Quislings. The Trials of Norwegian Wartime Collaborators, 1941–1964, by Anika Seemann (Cambridge University Press)
Pistols in St Paul’s: Science, Music, and Architecture in the Twentieth Century, by Fiona Smyth (Manchester University Press)
Desire and Disunity: Christian Communities and Sexual Norms in the Late Antique West, by Ulriika Vihervalli (Liverpool University Press)
Two prizes, each of £1000, will be awarded to two authors of a first, single-authored monograph.
THE WINNER OF THIS YEAR’S RHS FIRST BOOK PRIZE WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN JULY, ALONG WITH RECIPIENTS OF THE SOCIETY’S 2025 EARLY CAREER ARTICLE PRIZE.
About the Prize
The Royal Historical Society’s First Book Prize, 2025, recognises first, sole-authored monographs published in 2024. Books for consideration were submitted by authors following an open call.
Eight titles have now been shortlisted with two winners to be announced in July 2025.
Titles eligible for the 2025 Prize will:
- be an early career historian’s first sole-written history book and take the form of a monograph;
- be on any historical subject, covering all topics, chronologies and geographies;
- be an original and scholarly work of historical research by an author who received their doctoral degree from a UK or Irish university;
- have been published in English during the calendar year 2024 (for the 2025 award). Only printed and e-books bearing a 2024 copyright date are eligible for consideration in the current round. Books issued by publishers in the final weeks of 2024, which bear a copyright date of 2025, will be eligible for nomination in the 2025 awards.
- be a publication from a recognised academic or university press, or a publisher of academic monographs in history.
Find out more about the Society’s First Book Prize, and previous winners of RHS book prizes to 2024, on the RHS website.
Also available: Royal Historical Society Early Career Article Prize, 2025
The Society’s Early Career Article Prize is awarded to for a journal article, published in 2024, by an early career historians who is currently studying for a PhD or is within three years of submission of their PhD at university in the UK or Republic of Ireland.
This year’s shortlist of eight articles is now available, with two winners to be announced in early July.
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