The shortlist for the 2026 Cundill History Prize has been revealed, with eight authors in contention for the annual award given to a book that “embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal.”
Jill Lepore made the shortlist for We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, which won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for history. Sam Dalrymple was named a finalist for Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia; the book was previously a finalist for the Orwell Prize for political writing.
Linford D. Fisher was shortlisted for Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History, as were Louise Brangan for The Fallen: The Lost Girls of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and a Legacy of Silence and Jonathan Cheng for Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult.
Eric T. Jennings was named a finalist for Vanilla: The History of an Extraordinary Bean, alongside Alexander Lee for The First Ghetto: Venice and the Origins of Modern Antisemitism and Beth Lew-Williams for John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law.
Emily Greenwood, chair of the prize jury, said in a statement, “I feel a great sense of excitement and conviction about this shortlist. Each book on this list invites readers into an absorbing prose world and leaves them with a different reckoning of history.”
The Cundill History Prize, administered by McGill University in Montreal, was established in 2008. Previous winners include Anne Applebaum for Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956 and Kathleen DuVal for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America.
The winner of this year’s award, which comes with a cash prize of $75,000, will be announced on Oct. 23 at the Cundill History Prize Festival in Montreal.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
