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 2026 Prize Rounds: Shortlisted Titles
Calls for the submission of self-nominated books and articles for the RHS First Book and Early Career Article prizes closed on 15 December 2025. Judging began in early 2026.
Shortlists for the 2026 prizes are published in May 2026 with final winners for both prizes announced in July.
Shortlist of the 2026 First Book Prize: the eight titles on this year’s shortlist were announced on 18 May 2026.
Shortlist of the 2026 Early Career Article Prize: the eight articles on this year’s shortlist will be announced on 19 May 2026.
2025 Article and Book Prizes: winners
Early Career Article Prize
- William Jones, “You are going to be my Bettman”: Exploitative Sexual Relationships and the Lives of the Pipels in Nazi Concentration Camps’, published in The Journal of Holocaust Research (2024)
- Michaela Kalcher, ‘The Self in the Shadow of the Guillotine: Revolution, Terror and Trauma in a Parisian Diary‘, published in History Workshop Journal (2024)
First Book Prize
- Royal Justice and the Making of the Tudor Commonwealth, 1485-1547, by Laura Flannigan (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
- Segregated Species: Pests, Knowledge, and Boundaries in South Africa, 1910–1948, by Jules Skotnes-Brown (Johns Hopkins University Press 2024)
Prizes: changes for 2025 onwards
- For 2025 onwards, the Society is introducing changes to its book prizes. For this coming round we move to a single book prize for which two winning titles will be identified. 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 early career 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.
- Submission to the Society’s Early Career Article Prize remains, as in previous years, by self-nomination. From 2025, this prize will be 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.