The Royal Historical Society’s annual first 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.
The call for submissions for the 2025 prizes will open on Monday 2 December 2024 and close on Friday 31 January 2025. A further announcement of the call will be made on 2 December.
For the 2025 prize round, the Society is introducing the following changes.
For the RHS First Book Award:
- the Society moves to a single book prize for which two winning titles will be identified each year. 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 move to a system of self-nomination by authors of first books published in the previous calendar year. This replaces 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.
For the RHS Early Career Article Prize:
- the Society extends the eligibility period to authors within three years of completing a PhD in history at a UK or Irish university. This replaces the previous criterion for authors currently studying for a PhD or within two years of having completed their dissertation.
All other eligibility requirements remain as for 2024 and previous years. For full details and guidance on how to 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: administration@royalhistsoc.org.