The Royal Historical Society invites applications for its First Book Prize, 2027 and Early Career Article Prize, 2027. The call for submissions opened on Monday 28 September 2026 and runs to Monday 14 December 2026. Applications for each of these prizes may be made via the Society’s application portal:
- RHS First Book Prize, 2027, for first history monographs published in 2025 by early career historians who received a PhD from a UK or Irish university.
- RHS Early Career Article Prize, 2027, for history articles / book chapters, published in 2025 by authors who are either current PhD students at, or within three years of having received their doctorate from, a UK or Irish university.
The Society looks to make two awards, in 2026, for the RHS First Book Prize (worth £1,000 per award) and a further two awards for the RHS Early Career Article Prize (each worth £250).
Further information on eligibility and how to submit an application for both prizes is available here: for first monographs and for early career articles.
Submissions for both prizes are by self-nomination by the author via the Society’s applications portal.
- Submissions for the: First Book Prize, 2027
- Submissions for the: Early Career Article Prize, 2027
The Society expects to award the 2027 prizes in July of next year. The winners of the 2026 awards were as follows:
First Book Prize
- 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)
Early Career Article Prize
- 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
General enquiries about Society’s Prizes should be sent to: [email protected].
HEADER IMAGE: Library Bookcase, from Chippendale Drawings, Vol. II, Thomas Chippendale, British (1753), Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York, public domain.