To mark the holiday celebrating the country’s first president, Washington College announced seven finalists for the prestigious George Washington Prize. Among them is UNH Presidential Professor of History Janet Polasky, nominated for her book "Revolutions Without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World."
The annual award recognizes the past year’s best written works on the nation’s founding era, especially those that have the potential to advance broad public understanding of early American history.
Created in 2005 by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Washington College, the $50,000 George Washington Prize is one of the nation’s largest and most notable literary awards. Past recipients have included Pulitzer Prize-wining historian Annette Gordon-Reed and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Distinguished historians and writers Sean Wilentz, Libby O’Connell and James Kirby Martin served as independent jurors who selected the finalists from a field of nearly 60 books published in the past year. The winner of the 2016 prize will be announced at a black-tie gala on Wednesday, May 25, at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
This is not the first time a UNH historian has been chosen for this honor. Professor Eliga Gould was nominated for the prize in 2013 for his book, "Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire."
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Written By:
Susan Dumais '88 '02G | College of Liberal Arts
