Society of American Historians facts for kids
The Society of American Historians started in 1939. It helps and celebrates people who write history and biographies about American topics in a really good way.
About 300 members belong to this group. They include professional historians, independent researchers, journalists, filmmakers, novelists, poets, and biographers. They are chosen because their writing or presentations about American history are excellent and smart.
Awards for Great History Writing
The Society gives out several awards each year. They announce them at a special dinner in May.
- The Francis Parkman Prize is given every year. It's for a non-fiction book about American history that is written very well. The prize is named after Francis Parkman, a historian from the 1800s. His books about France and England in North America are famous for their elegant style and deep history.
- The Society of American Historians Prize for Historical Fiction is given every two years (in odd-numbered years). This award is for the best historical novel about an American topic. It used to be called the James Fenimore Cooper Prize.
- The Allan Nevins Prize is given every year to new scholars. It celebrates the best written doctoral paper (a very long research paper for a PhD degree) about an American subject. The winning paper gets published by one of the Society's publishing partners. This prize is named after Allan Nevins, who started the Society.
- The Tony Horwitz Prize started in 2020. It honors great work in American history that many people enjoy and that is important for a long time. This prize remembers Tony Horwitz, who was a past president of the Society. He was a journalist and historian known for his kind and graceful writing.
- From 2008 to 2017, the Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Award was given. It honored excellent writing in American history that was important to the public. Schlesinger was a very important historian in the 1900s. He was known for making history part of public discussions.
How the Society Started
Allan Nevins and some friends created the Society in 1939. Nevins felt that some academic historians wrote in a way that was hard to understand. He called it the "pedantic school" of history. He thought these writers seemed proud of writing badly.
Nevins taught history at Columbia University for over 35 years. He wrote more than 50 books, including a long history of the American Civil War. He also wrote biographies of famous people like John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford. Nevins was a journalist for 15 years before teaching. He was known for his strong and easy-to-read writing style. He continued to write for radio and popular newspapers throughout his life.
How the Society Works
The Society's leaders for 2023/2024 are Philip Deloria, who is the president, and Martha A. Sandweiss, who is the vice president.
Their main office is at Columbia University. The Society gets most of its money from yearly fees paid by its individual members and publishing companies. It is also connected to the American Historical Association.
