Finalists have been selected for the $50,000 2025 George Washington Prize, which honors "the year's most outstanding works on America's founding era, particularly those that deepen public understanding of early American history" and is sponsored by George Washington's Mount Vernon, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Washington College. The finalists will discuss their books at an event at George Washington's Mount Vernon on August 12, and the winner will be announced at a gala dinner in New York City on October 8.
The finalists:
Jane E. Calvert, for Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson (Oxford University Press)
Francis D. Cogliano, for A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic (Harvard University Press)
Michael D. Hattem, for The Memory of '76: The Revolution in American History (Yale University Press)
Tyson Reeder, for Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison's America (Oxford University Press)
Cara Rogers Stevens, for Thomas Jefferson and the Fight against Slavery (University Press of Kansas)
Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, said, "The finalists are the best of rigorous and thoughtful history, written with delightful prose, compelling storytelling, and an eye to why history matters today. These books give us a better understanding of the founding era and our current moment, as only the best history can do."
James Basker, president and CEO of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, said, "These insightful and thought-provoking works highlight the complexities of America's founding and the struggles of its key figures. From John Dickinson's foundational role in the Revolution to Thomas Jefferson's contradictory stance on slavery, each book offers a fresh, nuanced perspective on the moral, political, and social challenges that shaped the early republic."
Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold director of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, said, "In the two decades since the first George Washington Prize was conferred in 2005, the award has honored an extraordinary range of works that shed new light on previously neglected histories. The 2025 roster of nominees shows that we are still experiencing a golden age of original scholarship on our nation's founding era."
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Margaret McDonald and her editors, Alice Swan and Ama Badu, won the 2025 Branford Boase Award for Glasgow Boys. The award honors the author and editor(s) of a debut novel for young people. The author gets £1,000 (about $1,340) for the win, and she and the editors receive engraved trophies.
Chair of judges Julia Eccleshare, co-founder of the award, called the book "a deeply moving story shaped by the struggles against class and poverty.... Despite all, Margaret McDonald's characters are full of hope and the story is refreshingly strong and bold, too."
McDonald said, "Alice and Ama treated Banjo and Finlay as I do myself, which is as real people. I worked on every single aspect of Glasgow Boys with Alice and Ama, and it wouldn't exist as it does today without them, truly. Glasgow Boys is a piece of my soul and to have it recognized in this way is unbelievably special, but also to have my incredible editors Alice and Ama recognized for the magnificent work they did, taking such care of Banjo and Finlay, is more than half of the joy."