Winners of the 2012 Bancroft Prize Announced

Columbia University announced today that three acclaimed works: a highly original history of the American West, a new perspective on the transformation of ideas from the end of the twentieth century, and a startling new perspective on the Civil Rights movement, will be awarded the 2012 Bancroft Prize.

The winners are Anne F. Hyde, "Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800–1860" (University of Nebraska Press, 2011); Daniel T. Rodgers, "Age of Fracture" (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011); and Tomiko Brown-Nagin, "Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement" (Oxford University Press, 2011).

The winning works, while disparate in subject matter, demonstrate the powerful impact of re-examination of historical events in an ever-changing, ever-evolving world.

Columbia Provost John H. Coatsworth will present the awards at the Bancroft Prize dinner next month, hosted by the department of history and Columbia University Libraries. The Bancroft Prize, which includes an award of $10,000 to each author, is administered by University Librarian and Vice President for Information Services, James G. Neal.

"Historical scholarship with innovative and rigorous re-examinations and exciting boundary challenges, as evidenced by the content and scope of this year's Bancroft Prize winners, is so worthy of our celebration and recognition. We applaud the excellence in research, writing and thought demonstrated by the three works selected this year," Neal said.

Anne F. Hyde is professor of history at Colorado College. She has won the W. Turrentine Jackson Award from the Western History Association and has held office in the Western History Association, the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians.

Daniel T. Rodgers is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University. He has been a Fulbright lecturer in Germany and Japan and the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin is the T. Munford Boyd Professor of Law and Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School. She teaches courses on American social and legal history, constitutional law, education law and policy and public interest law. She has written widely on civil rights history and law and published in both law and history journals.

The Bancroft Prize was established at Columbia University in 1948 with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, a preeminent historian, librarian, author, and Columbia University lecturer. It is considered one of the most distinguished academic awards in the field of history.