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Gary Bass wins 2014 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature

9780307744623-1Gary Bass is the recipient of the seventh annual Cundill Prize in Historical Literature for The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (Knopf). McGill University chancellor Michael Meighen and McGill dean of arts Christopher Manfredi presented Bass with the award at a gala in Toronto Thursday night.

The $75,000 U.S. award is the world’s richest international prize for a non-fiction work, recognizing a book that has “a profound literary, social, and academic impact in the area of history.” It is administered by McGill University’s dean of arts and the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

This year’s jury comprised author and The Atlantic senior editor David Frum, University of Massachusetts graduate program director and public history program professor/director Marla R. Miller, Yale University history professor and inaugural Cundill Prize winner Stuart Schwartz, Trent University founding president and professor emeritus Thomas H.B. Symons, and Huffington Post Canada Ottawa bureau chief Althia Raj.

The Blood Telegram was chosen from 165 submissions by 70 publishers. Finalists Richard Overy and David Van Reybrouck were each awarded a $10,000 U.S. “Recognition of Excellence” award for their respective books, The Bombing War: Europe 1939-45 (Allen Lane) and Congo: The Epic History of a People (ECCO).