2008

Honorable Mention: Chad Bryant
Title: Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism (Harvard University Press)

This excellent book takes a world of Czech lands prior to Nazi occupation, where “apolitical politics” and the liberties of what some called “public nationality” and “amphibious” social identifications once reigned, and explores how the arrival of German forces in World War II augured profoundly for how nationality was assigned, lived, determined, and so deeply transformed. Prague in Black is a beautifully written page-turner that reflects the state of the art in nationalist cultural histories.

Honorable Mention: John Randolph
Title: A House in the Garden: The Bakunin Family and the Romance of Russian Idealism (Cornell University Press) (A House in the Garden was also the winner of the 2008 W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize)

Reconstructing domestic life of a famous noble family, A House in the Garden challenges our understanding of the relations between the private domain, intellectual culture, and state structures in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russia. With rich example from the lives of the Bakunins, Belinsky, and Stankevich, this subtle and sophisticated book sets new standards for the writing of Russian intellectual history. It would be hard to imagine a finer treatment of such varied sources.

Winner: Adeeb Khalid