2026 ICHTH–INTH BOOK PRIZES
FOR THE HISTORY AND THEORY OF HISTORIOGRAPHY

Update 5 January 2026

The deadline for submissions for the Best Book and Best First Book, organized jointly by the International Commission for the History and Theory of Historiography (ICHTH) and the International Network for History of Theory (INTH) has now passed. The Prize Committee received 21 submissions from 17 countries (6 in the Best First Book category; 14 in the Best Book category; one submission was disqualified). Compared to the submissions for the previous (fifth) edition (with 17 submissions from 10 countries, of which 4 in the Best First Book and 13 in the Best Book category), this (sixth) edition is more successful in terms of numbers of submissions, especially when we take into account the smaller coverage (this edition covered books from 2024–2025, the previous one books from 2021–2023). The Prize Committee consists of six scholars from five continents nominated by ICHTH and INTH: Mariana Imaz Sheinbaum (Mexico), Lize Kriel (South Africa), João Ohara (Brazil), Luke David O’Sullivan (Singapore), Walderez Ramalho (Brazil), and Marek Tamm (Estonia). It will first draft a shortlist and then reach consensus on the Best Book and Best First Book. The prizes will be awarded during a ceremony on 22 May 2026 at the Sixth INTH Conference in Tallinn. Follow the news on https://www.ichth.net/prize.

*****

Update 5 January 2026: The Call was closed on 31 December 2025.

May 2025

The International Commission for the History and Theory of Historiography (ICHTH) and the International Network for Theory of History (INTH) jointly award two prizes, worth 500 euros each, for the Best Book and Best First Book on any aspect of the history and theory of historiography.

Submissions are now open for the 2026 ICHTH–INTH BEST BOOK AND BEST FIRST BOOK (published between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025)

Submission deadline: 31 December 2025

LAUREATES

In 2013, the ICHTH established a Prize to honor a scholar whose recent work (book or doctoral dissertation) significantly contributed to the fields of history and theory of historiography.

2024 ICHTH – INTH Best Book Prize

• Award: Jörg van Norden, Verlust der Vergangenheit: Historische Erkenntnis und Materialität zwischen Wiedererkennen und Befremden (Frankfurt am Mainz: Wochenschau Verlag, 2022).

• Shortlisted: Christophe Bouton, L’Accélération de l’histoire: Des Lumières à l’anthropocène (Paris: Seuil, 2022).

• Shortlisted: Gunnar Schumann, Historical Explanation: An Anti-Causalist Approach (London: Routledge, 2023).

2024 ICHTH – INTH Best First Book Prize

• Award: Mariana Imaz-Sheinbaum, Historical Narratives: Constructable, Evaluable, Inevitable (New York and London: Routledge, 2024).

2022 ICHTH – INTH Book Prize

• Award: Hans Ruin, Being with the Dead: Burial, Ancestral Policies and the Roots of Historical Consciousness (Stanford University Press, 2018).

• Award: Zoltán Boldizsár Simon, History in Times of Unprecedented Change: A Theory for the 21st Century (Bloomsbury, 2019).

2018 ICHTH Doctoral Dissertation Prize

• Award: Ritwik Bhattacharyya, Homo Ahistoricus: Disavowal of History in Colonial South Asian Writing.

• Honorable mention: Alexander Maar, Cause, Chance, Determinism and Counterfactuals in History.

2016 ICHTH Book Prize

• Award: Jouni Matti Kuukkanen, Postnarrativist Philosophy of Historiography (Palgrave 2015).

2013 ICHTH Doctoral Dissertation Prize

• Award: Berber Bevernage, History, Memory, and State-Sponsored Violence: Time and Justice (Routledge, 2013).