Lionel Gelber Prize

Lionel Gelber Prize
Awarded for"the world's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues."
Presented byLionel Gelber Prize Board
RewardCA$50,000
First award1990

The Lionel Gelber Prize is a literary award for English non-fiction books on foreign policy.[1] Founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber, the prize honors "the world's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues."[2] A prize of CA$50,000, is awarded to the winner. The award is presented annually by the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

Recipients are judged by an international jury of experts. In 1999, The Economist called the award "the world's most important award for non-fiction".[3] Past winners have included, Lawrence Wright, Jonathan Spence, David McCullough, Kanan Makiya, Michael Ignatieff, Eric Hobsbawm, Robert Kinloch Massie, Adam Hochschild (a two-time winner), Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky, Walter Russell Mead, Chrystia Freeland, and Steve Coll.

Lionel Gelber

Lionel Gelber was a Canadian author, scholar, historian, and diplomat. During his career, he wrote eight books and many articles on foreign relations, including The Rise of Anglo-American Friendship: a Study of World Politics 1898 to 1906,[4] which examined the "rise of American global power, with all the risk, hope and complexity such a geopolitical shift entailed at the beginning of the 20th Century."[4] He followed this work with Peace by Power: The Plain Man's Guide to the Key Issues of the War and the Post-War World in 1942 and America in Britain's Place in 1961.[4] Gelber studied at Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto before winning the Rhodes Scholarship and beginning his studies at Balliol College, Oxford.[4] In 1989, the Lionel Gelber prize was created to honor works published in Gelber's field.[4]

Recipients

Award winners
Year Author Title Result Ref.
1990 Jonathan D. Spence The Search for Modern China Winner
1991 Dorothy V. Jones Code of Peace: Ethics and Security in the World of Warlord States Winner
1992 David McCullough Truman Winner
1993 Kanan Makiya Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World Winner
1994 Michael Ignatieff Blood and Belonging: Journeys Into the New Nationalism Winner
1995 Eric Hobsbawm The Age of Extremes: The Short 20th Century, 1914–1991 Winner
1996 Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev Winner
1997 Donovan Webster Aftermath: The Remnants of War Winner
1998 Robert Kinloch Massie Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa In the Apartheid Years Winner
1999 Adam Hochschild King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism In Colonial Africa Winner
2000 Patrick Tyler A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History Winner
2001 Robert Skidelsky John Maynard Keynes, Fighting for Britain 1937-1946 Winner
2002 Walter Russell Mead Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World Winner
2003 Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy Winner
2004 Steve Coll Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 Winner [5]
2006 Adam Hochschild Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves Winner
2007 Lawrence Wright The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 Winner
2008 Paul Collier The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It Winner
2009 Lawrence Freedman A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East Winner
2010 Jay Taylor The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China Winner [6]
2011 Shelagh Grant Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America Winner [7]
Serhii M. Plokhy Yalta: The Price of Peace Shortlist [8]
Ian Morris Why the West Rules—For Now Shortlist [8]
Doug Saunders Arrival City: The Final Migration and our Next World Shortlist [8]
Nick Cullather The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle Against Poverty in Asia Shortlist [8]
2012 Ezra F. Vogel Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China Winner [9][10]
Amanda Foreman A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War Shortlist [11][12]
Frederick Kempe Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth Shortlist [11][12]
John Lewis Gaddis George F. Kennan: An American Life Shortlist [11][12]
Henry Kissinger On China Shortlist [11][12]
2013 Chrystia Freeland Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else Winner [13][14]
Anne Applebaum Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 Shortlist [15]
Paul Bracken The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics Shortlist [15]
Kwasi Kwarteng Ghosts of Empire: Britain’s Legacies in the Modern World Shortlist [15]
Pankaj Mishra From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia Shortlist [15]
2014 Gary J. Bass The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide Winner [16][17]
Lynne Olson Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939—1941 Shortlist [18]
Eric Schlosser Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety Shortlist [18]
Brendan Simms Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, from 1453 to the Present Shortlist [18]
Benn Steil The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order Shortlist [18]
2015 Serhii Plokhy The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union Winner [19]
2016 Scott Shane Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President, and the Rise of the Drone Winner [20][21]
Barry Eichengreen Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses – and Misuses – of History Shortlist [22]
Niall Ferguson Kissinger 1923–1968: The Idealist Shortlist [22]
Dominic Lieven The End of Tsarist Russia: The March to World War 1 & Revolution Shortlist [22]
Susan Pedersen The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire Shortlist [22]
2017 Robert F. Worth A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS Winner [23][24]
Rosa Brooks How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon Shortlist [25][26]
Shadi Hamid Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World Shortlist [25][26]
Arkady Ostrovsky The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War Shortlist [25][26]
Laura Secor Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran Shortlist [25][26]
2018 Anne Applebaum Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine Winner [27]
Graham Allison Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? Shortlist [28]
Lawrence Freedman The Future of War: A History Shortlist [28]
Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World Shortlist [28]
Richard McGregor Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century Shortlist [28]
2019 Adam Tooze Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World Winner [29]
Rania Abouzeid No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria Shortlist [30]
Elizabeth C. Economy The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State Shortlist [30]
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt How Democracies Die Shortlist [30]
Timothy Snyder The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America Shortlist [30]
2020 Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes The Light that Failed: A Reckoning Winner [31][32]
2021 Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace Winner [33]
2022 Carter Malkasian The American War in Afghanistan: A History Winner [34]
Emily Bass To End a Plague: America's Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa Shortlist [35][36]
Rush Doshi The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order Shortlist [35][36]
Niall Ferguson Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe Shortlist [35][36]
Jeffrey Veidlinger In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918–1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust Shortlist [35][36]
2023 Susan L. Shirk Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise Winner [37][38]
Chris Miller Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology Shortlist [39]
Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism Shortlist [39]
J. Bradford DeLong Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century Shortlist [39]
Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century Shortlist [39]
2024 Timothy Garton Ash Homelands: A Personal History of Europe Winner [40]
Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson Power and Progress: Our 1000-year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity Shortlist [41][42]
Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy Shortlist [41][42]
Harold James Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises that Shaped Globalization Shortlist [41][42]
Wendy H. Wong We, The Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age Shortlist [41][42]
2025 Sergey Radchenko To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power Winner [43][44]
Mary Bridges Dollars and Dominion: U.S. Bankers and the Making of a Superpower Shortlist [43][44]
Steve Coll The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq Shortlist [43][44]
Tim Cook The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War Shortlist [43][44]
Benjamin Nathans To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement Shortlist [43][44]

References

  1. ^ "The Lionel Gelber Prize | The Munk School". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on November 12, 2024. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  2. ^ "About the Prize". The Lionel Gelber Prize - The Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  3. ^ "The devil inside". The Economist. September 9, 1999. Archived from the original on March 24, 2024. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Bibliography". The Lionel Gelber Prize - The Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
  5. ^ "HONORS". The Washington Post. March 3, 2005. Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  6. ^ "Recent Books". Vanderbilt University. August 22, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  7. ^ "Awards: Lionel Gelber Prize". Shelf Awareness . March 2, 2011. Archived from the original on January 18, 2025. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d "Awards: Best Translated Books Longlist; Lionel Gelber Shortlist". Shelf Awareness . January 27, 2011. Archived from the original on January 18, 2025. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  9. ^ "Vogel wins Gelber Prize for book". The Harvard Gazette. February 27, 2012. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
  10. ^ "Awards: Lionel Gelber Prize". Shelf Awareness . February 28, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  11. ^ a b c d "Awards: Lionel Gelber Prize Shortlist". Shelf Awareness . February 15, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  12. ^ a b c d Webb-Campbell, Shannon (February 13, 2012). "Lionel Gelber Prize shortlist announced". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  13. ^ Stuster, J. Dana (March 25, 2013). "The 2013 Gelber Prize winner: Chrystia Freeland's 'Plutocrats'". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on November 23, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  14. ^ "Awards: Lionel Gelber". Shelf Awareness . March 29, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  15. ^ a b c d Carter, Sue (February 19, 2013). "Chrystia Freeland makes Lionel Gelber Prize shortlist". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on December 9, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  16. ^ "'The Blood Telegram' wins the 2014 Lionel Gelber Prize". CTV News. The Canadian Press. March 31, 2014. Archived from the original on December 10, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  17. ^ "Awards: Lionel Gelber Winner; Reading the West Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. April 2, 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  18. ^ a b c d "Gelber Prize shortlists five foreign affairs books". Toronto Star. February 10, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  19. ^ "The 2015 Gelber Prize - Serhii Plokhy". CBC News. April 30, 2015. Archived from the original on May 6, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  20. ^ Robertson, Becky (March 1, 2016). "Scott Shane wins Munk School's Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on October 10, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  21. ^ "Drone Warfare: Is Killing Terrorists Legal?". CBC News. May 11, 2016. Archived from the original on July 22, 2017. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  22. ^ a b c d Robertson, Becky (February 8, 2016). "Guardians author Susan Pedersen among finalists for Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on September 21, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  23. ^ "Awards: B&N Discover, Lionel Gelber". Shelf Awareness . March 2, 2017. Archived from the original on November 13, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  24. ^ Carter, Sue (February 28, 2017). "Robert F. Worth wins Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  25. ^ a b c d "Awards: Lionel Gelber Shortlist". Shelf Awareness . February 3, 2017. Archived from the original on October 16, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  26. ^ a b c d Robertson, Becky (February 1, 2017). "Munk School of Global Affairs announces 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize shortlist". Quill & Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  27. ^ "Starving out resistance: Anne Applebaum on Stalin's deliberate famine in Ukraine". CBC Radio. September 14, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  28. ^ a b c d Cerny, Dory (February 14, 2018). "Lionel Gelber Prize shortlist announced". Quill & Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  29. ^ Ryan, Porter (February 28, 2019). "Adam Tooze wins Lionel Gelber Prize for book on financial crash". Quill and Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  30. ^ a b c d Carter, Sue (January 29, 2019). "Lionel Gelber Prize reveals five-title shortlist". Quill & Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  31. ^ Ryan, Porter (March 12, 2020). "American "political psychology" book The Light That Failed wins $15,000 Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill and Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  32. ^ "Gelber Prize winners blame 'politics of imitation' for extremism in Central Europe". CBC Radio. April 21, 2020. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  33. ^ Ryan, Porter (April 20, 2021). "Book on the human cost of global economics wins $15,000 Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  34. ^ Berki, Attila (April 12, 2022). "Winner of the 2022 Lionel Gelber Prize announced". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on April 20, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  35. ^ a b c d "Awards: Lionel Gelber, Lukas Shortlists". Shelf Awareness . February 24, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  36. ^ a b c d Drudi, Cassandra (February 10, 2022). "2022 Lionel Gelber Prize shortlist announced". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  37. ^ Drudi, Cassandra (April 10, 2023). "Susan L. Shirk wins 2023 Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on June 25, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  38. ^ "Awards: Lionel Gelber Winner; Ben Franklin Finalists". Shelf Awareness . April 11, 2023. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  39. ^ a b c d Drudi, Cassandra (February 28, 2023). "Shortlist announced for 2023 Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on January 15, 2025. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  40. ^ Drudi, Cassandra (March 6, 2024). "Timothy Garton Ash wins 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  41. ^ a b c d "Awards: Lionel Gelber Nonfiction Shortlist". Shelf Awareness . February 12, 2024. Archived from the original on October 15, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  42. ^ a b c d Drudi, Cassandra (February 13, 2024). "Shortlist announced for 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on March 6, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  43. ^ a b c d e "Awards: Carol Shields Fiction Longlist; Lionel Gelber Nonfiction Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. March 7, 2025. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  44. ^ a b c d e Drudi, Cassandra (March 3, 2025). "Tim Cook among authors shortlisted for 2025 Lionel Gelber Prize". Quill & Quire. Retrieved March 16, 2025.