Richard W. Leopold Prize

DEADLINE: SUBMISSIONS MUST BE POSTMARKED BY OCTOBER 1, 2023
Please send as soon as possible to allow for any mail delays that might occur.

Verification of current or past employment with the U.S. government (in the form of a letter or e-mail sent to the publisher from the office that employs or has employed the author) must be included with each entry for the Leopold Prize.

The Richard W. Leopold Prize is given biennially by the Organization of American Historians to historical scholarship that focuses on America and the world, military affairs, historical activities of the federal government, documentary histories, or biography created by a U.S. government historian or federal contract historian. These subjects cover the concerns and the historical fields of activity of the late Professor Leopold, who was president of the OAH 1976–1977. Eligible projects for the Leopold Prize can be books or edited volumes, but they can also include other forms of historical scholarship and documentation including public history projects, exhibitions, podcasts, documentary film, and digital history projects. We invite entries that explore the multiple forms of engagement in the spheres of America in the world and U.S. military history or address the diversity of federal government activities and of biographical subjects. Entries could explore, but are not limited to, high politics, the state and political economies along with social and cultural history, imperial history, Indigenous history, and transnational histories of racial formation, gender and sexuality, or labor.

The prize was designed to improve contacts and interrelationships within the historical profession where an increasing number of history-trained scholars hold distinguished positions in governmental agencies and museums. The prize recognizes the significant historical work being done by historians outside the academy.

Each entry must be published, uploaded, or installed during the two-year period January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2023.

The prize will be presented at the 2024 OAH Conference on American History in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 11–April 14.

Submission Procedures

The winner must have been employed as a full-time historian or federal contract historian in a U.S. government agency or museum for a minimum of five years prior to the submission. If the author has accepted an academic position, retired, or otherwise left federal service, the submission must have been created within two years of their separation date. Verification of current or past employment with the U.S. government (in the form of a letter or e-mail from the office that employs or has employed the author) must be included with each entry for the Leopold Prize.

One copy of each entry, clearly labeled “2024 Richard W. Leopold Prize Entry,” must be mailed directly to the committee members listed below. Each committee member must receive all submissions postmarked by October 1, 2023.

For books and edited volumes, bound page proofs may be used if they are to be published after October 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2024. If a bound page proof is submitted, a bound copy of the book must be sent to each committee member postmarked no later than January 7, 2024. (Please see “Submission Policy” at right.)

If a book carries a copyright date that is different from the publication date, but the actual publication date falls during the correct time frame making it eligible, please include a letter of explanation from the publisher with each copy of the book sent to the committee members.

For nonbook entries, appropriate documentation of the project along with evidence that it was publicly available from October 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2024, should be sent to each member of the committee. That documentation will necessarily vary by genre of entry but could, for example, include a catalog for an exhibition, a URL for a digital history project, active links to discrete episodes of a podcast, or for documentary film instructions for streaming.

The final decision will be made by the Richard W. Leopold Prize Committee by February 2024. The winner will be provided with details regarding the OAH Conference on American History and awards presentation. By applying for this prize, you are agreeing to the OAH’s use of your data however it is needed in the normal course of business if selected as winner or honorable mention. Read our privacy policy here.