George Washington Book Prize Celebration Honors 2012 Winner Maya Jasanoff, Nov. 8 and 9

Prize winning author and historian Maya Jasanoff.

Click here to listen to Tom Hall's interview with Maya Jasanoff for the WYPR show Maryland Morning. 

CHESTERTOWN, MD— History, they say, is usually told by the winners. But the winner of the 2012 George Washington Book Prize, author Maya Jasanoff, has uncovered the compelling and often moving stories of men and women who found themselves on the losing side of the American Revolution.

Jasanoff will share stories and insights from her book Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World at this year’s George Washington Book Prize Celebration at Washington College, on Thursday, November 8 and Friday, November 9. All events – which are hosted by the College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience – are free and open to the public.

The main event, “Making History: A Conversation with Maya Jasanoff,” will take place on Thursday, November 8 at 5:30 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, and will be followed by a reception. Guests who arrive early will have an opportunity to enjoy a book signing with the author and a performance by the Maryland Loyalist Battalion, a reenactment group.  The full schedule is as follows:

Thursday, November 8, Gibson Center for the Arts

4:15 p.m. - Book signing 

5:15 p.m. - Salute by the Maryland Loyalist Battalion

5:30 p.m. - “Making History: A Conversation with Maya Jasanoff and Adam Goodheart”

6:30 p.m. - Public Reception

Friday, November 9, The Egg, Center Stage, Hodson Hall Commons

9:30 a.m. - “Authors in the Egg: How Books Are Born.” Washington College students, faculty, and members of the public are invited to an informal conversation with Maya Jasanoff. A light breakfast will be served.

 “Maya Jasanoff vividly tells the stories of individual people swept up in the treacherous – and sometimes fatal – currents of history,” says Adam Goodheart, Director of the Starr Center, who will lead the November 8 conversation. “She brings the past to life by putting readers in the shoes of these characters, from wealthy merchants to African-American slaves.”

Jasanoff received the $50,000 prize at a black-tie dinner at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate Museum and Gardens last June. Sponsored by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and George Washington's Mount Vernon, the Washington Book Prize is one of the largest literary prizes in the nation. Given annually for the year’s best book about America’s founding era, it particularly recognizes well-written books that speak to general audiences and contribute to a broad public understanding of the American past. 

In addition to the 2012 Washington Book Prize, Liberty’s Exiles also received the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction and was shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize in Nonfiction. “At the heart of this smart, deeply researched and elegantly written history is Jasanoff’s re-creation of the lives of those who emigrated — rich and poor, white, black and in some cases red,” wrote New York Times reviewer Thomas Bender.

Jasanoff, a Professor of History at Harvard University, was awarded the 2005 Duff Cooper Prize for her first book, Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850, which was a book-of-the-year selection in numerous publications, including The Economist, The Observer and The Sunday Times. She has contributed essays to The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine and other publications.

Created in 2005 to honor the year’s best book about America’s founding era, the George Washington Book Prize was presented that year to Ron Chernow for Alexander Hamilton. Subsequent winners have included Stacy Schiff (2006), Annette Gordon-Reed (2009), Richard Beeman (2010), and Pauline Maier (2011).

Washington College’s Starr Center administers the Book Prize, which is co-sponsored with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens.

About the Sponsors of the George Washington Book Prize:

Washington College was founded in 1782, the first institution of higher learning established in the new republic. George Washington was not only a principal donor to the college, but also a member of its original governing board. He received an honorary degree from the college in June 1789, two months after assuming the presidency. The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, founded at the College in 2000, is an innovative center for the study of history, culture and politics, and fosters excellence in the art of written history through fellowships, prizes, and student programs. www.washcoll.edu.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supporting the study and love of American history through a wide range of programs and resources for students, teachers, scholars, and history enthusiasts throughout the nation. Gilder Lehrman creates and works closely with history-focused schools through its Affiliate School Program; organizes teacher seminars and development programs; produces print and digital publications and traveling exhibitions; hosts lectures by eminent historians; administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state and US territory; and offers national book prizes. The Gilder Lehrman website, www.gilderlehrman.org, serves as a gateway to American history online with rich resources for educators designed specifically for K–12 teachers and students.

 Since 1860, over 80 million visitors have made George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens the most popular historic home in America.  Through thought-provoking tours, entertaining events, and stimulating educational programs on the Estate and in classrooms across the nation, Mount Vernon strives to preserve George Washington’s place in history as “First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of His Countrymen.”  Mount Vernon is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, America’s oldest national preservation organization, founded in 1853.  A picturesque drive to the southern end of the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway, Mount Vernon is located just 16 miles from the nation’s capital.  www.MountVernon.org

"Liberty's Exiles" Author Maya Jasanoff Named Winner of $50,000 George Washington Book Prize

Jasanoff with the Prize medal at Mt. Vernon

[Download high resolution images]

MOUNT VERNON, VA.— One of the nation’s largest literary awards, the annual George Washington Book Prize, has been awarded to Maya Jasanoff for Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (Knopf, 2011).  Jasanoff, a professor of history at Harvard University, received the $50,000 prize on Monday evening, June 4, at a black-tie dinner at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, Museum and Gardens.

While it has long been said that history is written by the victors, Jasanoff vigorously challenges that idea in her powerful account of the lives of those who fought against the American Revolution. Liberty’s Exiles is a riveting story of the losers in America’s struggle for independence, loyalists who found themselves in a world turned upside down. Yet Jasanoff also describes how these exiles – who fled their lost colonies for the distant corners of the globe, from Nova Scotia to West Africa to India – helped shape the future of the British Empire.

The Washington Prize, honoring the year’s best book about America’s founding era, is sponsored by a partnership of three institutions devoted to furthering historical scholarship: Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and George Washington's Mount Vernon. It particularly recognizes well-written books that speak to general audiences and contribute to a broad public understanding of the American past.

“Maya Jasanoff vividly tells the stories of individual people swept up in the treacherous – and sometimes fatal – currents of history,” says Adam Goodheart, director of Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, which administers the prize. “She brings the past to life by putting readers in the shoes of these characters, from wealthy merchants to African-American slaves.”

“Told through the eyes of American loyalists, Liberty’s Exiles is a masterful combination of archival research and narrative storytelling,” adds James G. Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which funds the award. “Jasanoff delivers brilliant insight into the lives and motives of the 60,000 loyalists who sought refuge around the world after independence, depicting the global impact of that mass exodus and providing a fresh and engaging perspective on the American Revolution.”

Liberty’s Exiles has received many accolades since its publication, including the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction. It was shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize in Nonfiction.

Jasanoff was educated at Harvard, Cambridge and Yale, and is currently Professor of History at Harvard University. Her first book, Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850, was awarded the 2005 Duff Cooper Prize and was a book-of-the-year selection in numerous publications, including The Economist, The Observer and The Sunday Times. She has contributed essays to The London Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books and other publications.

From left, Washington College president Mitchell B. Reiss, winner
 Maya Jasanoff and Mount Vernon regent Ann Bookout.

In praising Liberty’s Exiles, the Washington Prize jury applauded the book’s “impressive archival research, its sweeping conceptualization, perspectives and aims, its enviable prose style and the penetrating insights it yields into its characters’ lives.”

The Mount Vernon event also celebrated the works of the two other finalists for this year’s prize: John Fea’s Was America Founded As A Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), and Benjamin H. Irvin’s Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty: The Continental Congress and the People Out of Doors (Oxford University Press, 2011).

 Finalists were selected by a three-person jury of distinguished American historians: Richard Beeman, the John Welsh Centennial Professor of History emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and the 2010 winner of the George Washington Book Prize, who served as chair; Thomas Fleming, distinguished historian and author; and Marla R. Miller, author and professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Jasanoff's book was named the ultimate winner by a panel of representatives from each of the three institutions that sponsor the prize, plus historian Barbara Oberg of Princeton University.

For more information about the George Washington Book Prize, please go to www.gwbookprize.washcoll.edu. And for more photos from Mount Vernon, visit the Event Gallery on the Washington College website.

The three Book Prize finalists pose during the reception on the
 lawn at Mount Vernon: Benjamin Irvin, Maya Jasanoff, and John Fea.

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About the Sponsors of the George Washington Book Prize:

            Founded in 1782, Washington College was the first institution of higher learning established in the new republic. George Washington was not only a principal donor to the College, but also a member of its original governing board. He received an honorary degree from the College in June 1789, two months after assuming the presidency. The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, founded at the College in 2000, is an innovative center for the study of history, culture and politics, and fosters excellence in the art of written history through fellowships, prizes and student programs. www.washcoll.edu.

Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of history education. The Institute has developed an array of programs for schools, teachers and students that now operate in all 50 states, including a website that features the more than 60,000 unique historical documents in the Gilder Lehrman Collection, www.gilderlehrman.org. Each year the Institute offers support and resources to tens of thousands of teachers, and through them enhances the education of more than a million students. The Institute’s programs have been recognized by awards from the White House, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Organization of American Historians.      

Since 1860, more than 80 million visitors have made George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, Museum & Gardens the most popular historic home in America.  Through thought-provoking tours, entertaining events and stimulating educational programs on the Estate and in classrooms across the nation, Mount Vernon strives to preserve George Washington’s place in history as “First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of His Countrymen.”  Mount Vernon is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, America’s oldest national preservation organization, founded in 1853.  Mount Vernon is located just 16 miles from the nation’s capital, at the southern end of the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway.  www.MountVernon.org

Exiled from America: Harvard Historian To Discuss Revolutionary War Loyalists

CHESTERTOWN, MD—History, as we know, is most often told by the victors. But the vanquished have stories of their own. In a March 23 presentation at Washington College, Harvard University historian Maya Jasanoff will reveal some of these stories, tracing the experiences of Americans loyal to the British crown and their forced exodus at the end of the American Revolution.

Jasanoff's talk, "Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World," will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, John S. Toll Science Center on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the program is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the talk.

Released just last month by Alfred A. Knopf, Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World has already been lauded far and wide as a masterpiece, upending past assumptions about the aftermath of the American Revolution.

"Losers seldom get to write history, but the American loyalists have at last got their historian with Maya Jasanoff," said historian Joseph J. Ellis, while Sean Wilentz noted that her "stunning reinterpretation … affirms her place as one of the very finest historians of the rising generation." British historian William Dalrymple agreed, calling Jasanoff "not just a very good writer, an indefatigable researcher, and a fine historian," but "also a bit of a genius."

When the British army evacuated the United States in 1783, thousands of American loyalists followed in its wake. Their numbers included wealthy white landowners, Mohawk Indians, and formerly enslaved blacks who had won their freedom aiding the British. Having cast their lot with the losing side, they fanned out from the newly-independent United States, seeking a future elsewhere in the British Empire. Some sailed to Britain itself, others to Canada, the Bahamas and the West Indies; still others journeyed even further, to India and Africa.

"This voyage into exile was a trip into the unknown..." Jasanoff writes. "For them, America seemed less 'an Assylum to the persecuted' than a potential persecutor." Yet wherever they went, Jasanoff argues, the American loyalists carried with them some startlingly "American" ideas. Transmitted around the world, these revolutionary legacies helped to redefine the British Empire.

"As revolutions ripple across the Middle East, we can't help but notice how small our world is," said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center. "Maya Jasanoff's fascinating book reminds us this isn't a completely new phenomenon. The world was a pretty small place even in 1783."

Maya Jasanoff is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University, where she teaches courses on modern Britain and the British Empire. She has recently held fellowships at the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Her first book, Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850 (Knopf, 2005), won the Duff Cooper Prize.

Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in colonial Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Based in the Custom House along the colonial waterfront, the College's C.V. Starr Center fosters the art of written history and explores our nation's past—particularly the legacy of its Founding era—in innovative ways, through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach. For more information on the Center, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.