Announcing the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize Finalists
New York, NY, February 1, 2024—The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize:
- Frank J. Cirillo, The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union (Louisiana State University Press)
- Frances M. Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant, Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era (Oxford University Press)
- John C. Rodrigue, Freedom’s Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Cambridge University Press)
- Yael A. Sternhell, War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War (Yale University Press)
- Ronald C. White, On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Random House)
These finalists were recommended to the board from 83 book submissions reviewed by a three-person jury: Harold Holzer, Jonathan Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College; Thavolia Glymph, Peabody Family Distinguished Professor of History at Duke University; and Edna Greene Medford, Professor Emerita and former Chair of History at Howard University.
James G. Basker, President of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, observed, “The range and quality of new historical writing is fully on display in these five finalists for the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. From boy soldiers to battlefield heroism, plantation slavery to radical abolitionism, these books are full of the stories and issues that continue to reverberate today. Readers will want to dive into each of them!”
The winner of the 2024 prize will be announced on Thursday, February 29. All of the finalists will be invited to an event on Thursday, April 4 hosted at the Harvard Club in New York City, where the winner will be recognized and awarded a $50,000 prize and a bronze replica of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s life-size bust Lincoln the Man.
About the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
The Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize is awarded annually to a work that enhances the general public’s understanding of Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier, or the American Civil War era. The $50,000 prize was established in 1990 by businessmen and philanthropists Lewis E. Lehrman and the late Richard Gilder, in partnership with Gettysburg College and Professor Gabor Boritt, Director Emeritus of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.
About the Gilder Lehrman Institute
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is the nation’s leading K–12 American history organization. The Institute’s mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and interactive resources for teachers, students, and the general public. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is supported through the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations. The Institute’s programs have been recognized by awards from the White House, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Council of Independent Colleges, and the Organization of American Historians.
PRESS CONTACTS
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Josh Landon
landon@gilderlehrman.org
(646) 366-9666, ext. 137
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Daniela Muhling
muhling@gilderlehrman.org
(646) 366-9666, ext. 144
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