McMaster historians shortlisted for national book prize

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Bouchier_Nancy_Weaver_John.jpg” caption=”John Weaver and Nancy Bouchier review each other’s book. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay”]Two McMaster authors have been shortlisted for the Harold Adams Innis Prize, from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

McMaster historians Nancy Bouchier and John Weaver were selected for their books, For the Love of the Game, Amateur Sport in Small-Town Ontario, 1838-1895 and The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900, respectively.

The winners will be announced at a reception at the National Library of Canada in Gatineau on Nov. 27.

“It's pretty amazing that two authors from the same university – yet alone the same department – have been short-listed for a prize for the best English-language book in the social sciences,” says Bouchier, associate professor of kinesiology and associate member of the Department of History at McMaster.

But it's not unusual, adds Weaver. “We have a history of not only being nominated but winning this award,” he says. “McMaster has an exceedingly strong group of historians.”

Established in 1990, the Scholarly Book Prizes have been awarded to acclaimed Canadian researchers. The prizes recognize Canadian excellence in research and writing in the humanities and social sciences and acknowledge the significant contribution that Canadian scholarly books make to the advancement of knowledge.

The awards are administered by the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP), a program that helps publish the manuscripts of Canadian scholars. The ASPP is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Five researchers have been shortlisted for the prize. In addition to McMaster's recipients, also shortlisted are Sylvia Bashevkin from the University of Toronto, Peter Eglin from Wilfrid Laurier and Rebecca Johnson from the University of Victoria.

To read a description of For the Love of the Game, Amateur Sport in Small-Town Ontario, 1838-1895 Click here.

To read about The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900, Click here.

Weaver also won the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize from the Canadian Historical Association for this book, which was judged to be the outstanding historical study in a field other than Canadian history by a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant living in Canada . He also won the 2004 North American Conference on British Studies Book Prize, for the best book published anywhere by a North American scholar on any aspect of British studies since 1800.

Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952), a McMaster alumnus, was one of Canada's most distinguished interdisciplinary scholars. His concern for problems associated with the development of Canadian society and the course of Western civilization led him to examine an enormously diverse array of materials from History, Philosophy, Science, Literature and the Arts. His understanding of Canada's Economic History, his grasp of the issues which beset his generation and his perceptions set him apart from his contemporaries. Events of the past decade have made his writings even more relevant today.