The Royal Historical Society’s annual book and article prizes recognise excellent historical scholarship and achievement. These prizes are open to early career historians, either for their first monograph or an article published while a PhD student or soon after completion of a doctorate from a UK or Irish university.
The 2027 Prize Rounds: calls for submissions open on 28 September
Calls for the submission of self-nominated books and articles for the 2027 RHS First Book and Early Career Article prizes will open on Monday 28 September 2026 and run to Monday 14 December 2026, with further details announced on the Society’s website. The 2027 prizes will be for first monographs and articles published in 2026.
Shortlists for the 2027 prizes are expected in May 2027, with the final winners made known in July 2027.
The 2026 Prize Rounds: Winning Titles
The 2026 winners of the Society’s First Book Prize and Early Career Article Prize were announced on Wednesday 1 July by RHS President, Lucy Noakes, as part of the Society’s annual Prothero Lecture.
The two winners for this year’s First Book Prize are:
- Kiran Mehta for her book To Detain or To Punish: Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750-1840 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025)
- John Latham-Sprinkle for his book The North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania, 850-1240 (Cambridge University Press, 2025)
Many congratulations to Kiran and John on their success. This year’s book prize received more than 60 submissions, with the shortlist of eight titles available here.
The two winners for this year’s Early Career Article Prize are:
- Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh for ‘Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope‘, in Past & Present
- Stephanie Wanga for ‘Rereading Ujamaa, rethinking freedom’, in Development and Change
Many congratulations to Gianamar and Stephanie for their achievement. The 2026 article prize received more than 50 submissions, with the shortlist of eight titles available here.
Prizes: changes from 2025 onwards
- From 2025 onwards, the Society introduced changes to its book prizes. For this coming round we move to a single book prize for which two winning titles will be identified. From this date, all books submitted will be considered for this single book prize, with no distinction made (as in previous years) for books relating to ‘British and Irish’ and ‘non-British and Irish’ history.
- In 2025, we also moved to a system of self-nomination by early career authors of first books published in the previous calendar year. This replaced the previous application process of submission by publisher. We hope these changes will encourage submissions of the widest range of first monographs by early career historians which reflects the diversity of the historical profession and practice.
- Submission to the Society’s Early Career Article Prize remains, as in previous years, by self-nomination. From 2025, this prize is open to historians within three (as opposed to the previous two) years of completion of a PhD at a UK or Irish university.
For further details of these changes and how eligible authors may make a submission, please see the individual pages for the RHS First Book Prize and RHS Early Career Article Prize.
General enquiries about Society’s Prizes should be sent to: [email protected].
IMAGE: ‘Bird’s-Eye View of the Great New York and Brooklyn Bridge, and Grand Display of Fireworks on Opening Night … May 24, 1883’, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, public domain.