The shortlist has been selected for the 2025 Cundill History Prize, administered by McGill University. The winner receives $75,000 and the two runners-up $10,000 each. Three finalists will be announced September 30 and the winner October 30.
The shortlist:
Housework: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise by Emily Callaci (Allen Lane)
A Fractured Liberation: Korea Under U.S. Occupation by Kornel Chang (The Belknap Press of Harvard University)
The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe by Marlene L. Daut (Knopf)
America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin (Penguin Press)
To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement by Benjamin Nathans (Princeton University Press)
Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War by Lyndal Roper (John Murray Press)
The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life by Sophia Rosenfeld (Princeton University Press)
The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West by Martha A. Sandweiss (Princeton University Press)
Chair of the jury Ada Ferrer commented: "The eight books on our list are all quite different from one another, but all share some essential characteristics: analytical sharpness, engaging writing, and a firm belief that what the past reveals must be urgently understood. The committee is so proud to present this slate of eight books to the world."