Canadian scholar Rebecca Clifford among finalists for $95K Cundill History Prize for history writing
Vicky Qiao | | Posted: September 23, 2021 7:24 PM | Last Updated: September 23, 2021
Clifford is the only Canadian author on the 2021 shortlist
Survivors by Rebecca Clifford has made the shortlist of the 2021 Cundill History Prize, which honours the best history writing in English.
The prize annually awards $75,000 US ($95,494 Cdn) to a book that demonstrates historical scholarship, literary excellence and broad appeal. It is open to books from anywhere in the world, by authors of all nationalities and translated into English from different languages.
Survivors is a written account drawn from archives and interviews. Clifford documents the lives of one hundred Jewish children through their adulthood and into old age. The book explores the long-term impact of the Holocaust on the survivors — often branded "the lucky ones" — and how they had to struggle to survive at all.
"What this book does is offers us this profound meditation on trauma, on history and on memory. And it is beautifully written and a deeply compelling work of historical research," juror Jennifer L. Morgan said during the longlist announcement reveal.
Clifford is a professor of Transnational and European History at the University of Durham. Born in Kingston, Ont., she studied at McGill, Queen's and the University of Toronto, before moving to Oxford for her doctoral degree. She has lived in the UK since. Clifford is also the author of Commemorating the Holocaust: The Dilemmas of Remembrance in France and Italy.
The eight finalists are chosen from 360 books. The other shortlisted works are:
- The Loss of Hindustan by Manan Ahmed Asif
- The Horde by Marie Favereau
- Underground Asia by Tim Harper
- Vanguard by Martha S. Jones
- Blood on the River by Marjoleine Kars
- An Infinite History by Emma Rothschild
- White Freedom by Tyler Stovall
This year's prize jury is chaired by Michael Ignatieff, a Canadian historian, author, university professor and former politician.
"The historians whose books made our 2021 shortlist are all fine writers, with a compelling story to tell, backed up by years of careful research. They all use historical scholarship to address subjects – race, class, empire, revolution, and memory – that continue to define the present," Ignatieff said in a statement.
The finalists will be announced on Oct. 20, 2021 and the winner will be announced on Dec. 2, 2021.
Two runners-up will each receive $10,000 U.S. ($12,759.60 Cdn).
The Cundill History Prize is administered by McGill University in Montreal.
Past winners include Camilla Townsend, Julia Lovell, Maya Jasanoff and Daniel Beer.