Montreal historian among finalists for US$75,000 Cundill History Prize

Goscha’s book “Vietnam: A New History” is the sole Canadian contender for this year’s Cundill History Prize. (Screenshot from https://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Vietnam.html?id=Bl04DgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Montreal historian Christopher Goscha’s account of Vietnam’s divided past has made the short list for a prestigious history writing prize.

Goscha’s book “Vietnam: A New History” is the sole Canadian contender for this year’s Cundill History Prize, which is run by McGill University and rewards non-fiction history writing in English.

Goscha teaches at Universite de Quebec a Montreal.

His book is up against two other finalists for the US$75,000 prize, including “The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century” by Walter Schneidel, who was born in Austria and is based in the U.S.

The other contender is “The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsar” by University of London Prof. Daniel Beer.

The runners-up receive US$10,000 each.

This year’s jury includes Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan, British-American historian and author Amanda Foreman, and Canadian journalist and author Jeffrey Simpson.

The winner will be announced Nov. 16 in Montreal.