Richard Dunn Is Finalist for George Washington Book Prize

Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor Emeritus of American History Richard S. Dunn is one of four finalists for the 2015 George Washington Book Prize. One of the nation’s largest and most prestigious literary awards, the $50,000 prize recognizes the best new books on early American history. It is sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and Washington College.

Dunn earned the recognition for A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Jamaica and Virginia, which tackles the challenging issue of human bondage in an age of liberty. While at Penn, Dunn designed the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and was its founding director. His publications also include Sugar and Slaves; the four-volume The Papers of William Penn, edited with Mary Maples Dunn; and The Journal of John Winthrop, edited with Laetitia Yeandle.

Historians Rosemarie Zagarri of George Mason University, Philip Morgan of Johns Hopkins, and Ted Widmer at Brown selected the four finalists from a field of nearly 70 books published in the past year. The winner of the prize will be announced at a black-tie gala on May 20 at Mount Vernon.

Now in its eleventh year, the George Washington Book Prize celebrates works that not only shed new light on the nation’s founding era, but also have the potential to advance broad public understanding of American history.