2025

The Marshall D. Shulman Book Prize, established in 1987 and sponsored by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, is awarded annually for an outstanding monograph dealing with the international relations, foreign policy, or foreign-policy decision-making of any of the states of the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe published in the previous calendar year.

Honorable Mention: Maria Cristina Galmarini, Ambassadors of Social Progress: A History of International Blind Activism in the Cold War (Northern Illinois University Press, 2024) 

Maria Cristina Galmarini’s Ambassadors of Social Progress is a groundbreaking work about disability activism that adds significantly to the history of postwar human rights. Based on prodigious archival research, the book reconstructs the history of the international blind movement from the 1920s through the Cold War. It challenges narratives that “view Western grassroots movements and the ADA as a metonym for the whole history of disability” and shows the critical role played by socialist organizations in framing the international discussion about blindness. It carefully traces how individuals, organizations, and ideas crossed borders—and shaped a global discourse about advocacy, social progress, and rights. 

Honorable Mention: Radoslav Yordanov, Our Comrades in Havana: Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe, 1959–1991 (Stanford University Press, 2024) 

Radoslav Yordanov’s Our Comrades in Havana is a meticulously researched work that makes a significant contribution to Cold War studies. Moving beyond the familiar narrative of Havana’s ties with Moscow, Yordanov examines Cuba’s complex interactions with the wider socialist bloc. His analysis draws on extensive multilingual archival research across Eastern and Central Europe, bringing to light a wealth of previously untapped sources. By tracing the experiences of Eastern European diplomats and advisors stationed in Havana, the book offers fresh perspectives on Cuba’s distinctive place within the Cold War order. 

Winner: Samuel J. Hirst

Prize Committee: Alessandro Iandolo (chair), Francine Hirsch, and Togzhan Kassenova