Hughes Prize Shortlisting 2023

The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) has unveiled the shortlist for its Hughes Prize.

Six exceptional books will now be read by judges before the winner is revealed later this year.

The shortlisted works include a history of menthol cigarettes as a means of revealing networks of corporate exploitation and racial capitalism in the twentieth-century United States; a global history of science that challenges longstanding Eurocentric narratives; and a study of American psychiatry ranging broadly across questions of expertise, institutions, and therapy from the field’s inception to the present day.

Three of the books examine narratives of British history, with an account of how and why Victorians re-imagined their future in scientific and technological terms; a study of the role played by Georgian gardens in advancing science, education, and agricultural experimentation; and a biography that places the Huxley family at the centre of debates over humanity’s place in nature.

Dr Mary Brazelton, chair of the prize jury, congratulated those who had been shortlisted for the BSHS Hughes Prize.

“This is an exciting selection of books that spans an intriguing range of topics; the jury has taken care in selecting six compelling narratives to consider for the prize,” said Brazelton. “The strength of the field speaks to growing public interest in the history of science and the excellent work that is being done in this genre.”

Dr Mary Brazelton, chair of the prize jury

The BSHS Hughes Prize is awarded every two years to the best book in the history of science that is published in English and accessible to a general audience. It rewards books that bring scholarship to new readers by capturing the public imagination while conforming to the rigorous standards of academic research.

The BSHS Hughes Prize is named in memory of the society’s much-loved late president Dr Jeff Hughes.

The previous winner of the BSHS Hughes Prize, Jaipreet Virdi, was given the award for her book Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History, an account of therapeutic techniques and technologies developed to treat deafness in the United States interwoven with a personal history of life as a deaf person in America.

The winner will be announced in September and awarded a £300 prize.