Congratulations to UNP author Elliott West for being awarded the 2024 Bancroft Prize!

West was one of two winners for his book Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion. It was described by the jury as “a searing narrative explaining how the republic became a transcontinental nation,” through a “vast racial, social and political reordering” that redefined citizenship and the relationship between government, industry and the people.

The Bancroft Prizes are awarded annually by Columbia University in the City of New York. Under the terms of the will of the late Fredric Bancroft, provision is made for two annual prizes of equal rank to be awarded to the authors of distinguished works in either or both of the following categories: American History (including biography) and Diplomacy.

Continental Reckoning lays out the main events and developments that together describe and explain the emergence of the American West and situates the birth of the West in the broader narrative of American history between 1848 and 1880.

View the official announcement here.

UNP is the publisher of two previous Bancroft Prize winners: Empires, Nations, and Families (2012 Bancroft Prize winner) by Anne F. Hyde and White Mother to a Dark Race (2010 Bancroft Prize Winner) by Margaret D. Jacobs.