The Missouri History Book Award is given at the SHSMO annual meeting to the author of the best book published on the history of Missouri and its people. The honor includes a $1,500 prize and a certificate for the author(s).
Nominations
The call for nominations for the 2024 Missouri History Book Award closes on June 30, 2024.
Books published in 2023 are eligible for the 2024 award; entries will be evaluated by a panel of judges selected by the executive director.
The subject matter of books nominated for the award should pertain to Missouri-related people, places, institutions, and/or events that have statewide or national significance.
Original, documented scholarship in the form of historical biographies, monographs, and/or general studies may be nominated. Festschrifts, collections of essays, autobiographies, and edited works are not eligible for consideration.
Four copies of the book and a letter of nomination that includes full contact information for the publisher and the author should be personally delivered or postmarked by June 30, 2024, to:
Missouri History Book Award
The State Historical Society of Missouri
605 Elm Street
Columbia, MO 65201
For further information, contact SHSMO at (573) 882-7083 or contact@shsmo.org.
Missouri History Book Award Recipients
- 2023 - Gregg Andrews, Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875-1930
- 2022 - Benjamin Moore, The Names of John Gergen: Immigrant Identities in Early Twentieth-Century St. Louis
- 2021 - Walter Johnson, The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
- 2020 - Brooks Blevins, A History of the Ozarks: Volume 2, The Conflicted Ozarks
- 2019 - Brooks Blevins, A History of the Ozarks: Volume 1, The Old Ozarks
- 2018 - Keona K. Ervin, Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis
- 2017 - Christopher Phillips, The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border
- 2016 - Carl J. Ekberg and Sharon K. Person, St. Louis Rising: The French Regime of Louis St. Ange De Bellerive
- 2015 - David Lucander, Winning the War for Democracy: The March on Washington Movement, 1941–1946
- 2014 - Tracy Campbell, The Gateway Arch
- 2013 - James R. Shortridge, Kansas City and How it Grew, 1822-2011
- 2012 - Petra DeWitt, Degrees of Allegiance: Harassment and Loyalty in Missouri’s German American Community during World War I
- 2011 - Jared Roll, Spirit of Rebellion: Labor and Religion in the New Cotton South
- 2010 - William Garrett Piston and Thomas P. Sweeney, Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Missouri in the Civil War
- 2009 - Jay H. Buckley, William Clark: Indian Diplomat
- 2008 - Harry Haskell, Boss-Busters and Sin Hounds: Kansas City and Its Star
- 2007 - Stephen Aron, American Confluence: The Missouri Frontier from Borderland to Border State
- 2006 - Daniel W. Pfaff, No Ordinary Joe: A Life of Joseph Pulitzer III
- 2005 - William E. Foley, Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark
- 2004 - James C. Olson, Stuart Symington: A Life
- 2003 - Walter A. Schroeder, Opening the Ozarks: A Historical Geography of Missouri’s Ste. Genevieve District, 1760-1830
- 2002 - Harper Barnes, Standing on a Volcano: The Life and Times of David R. Francis
- 2001 - William Garrett Piston and Richard W. Hatcher III, Wilson’s Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It
- 2000 - Robert H. Ferrell, Truman and Pendergast
- 2000 - Special Award of Merit - Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer, and Kenneth H. Winn, Dictionary of Missouri Biography
- 1999 - Dominic J. Capeci Jr., The Lynching of Cleo Wright
- 1998 - Lawrence O. Christensen and Gary R. Kremer, A History of Missouri, Volume IV, 1875-1919
- 1997 - Kenneth C. Kaufman, Dred Scott's Advocate: A Biography of Roswell M. Field
- 1996 - Raymond A. Young, Cultivating Cooperation: A History of the Missouri Farmers Association
- 1995 - Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman: A Life
- 1994 - Sally M. Miller, From Prairie to Prison: The Life of Social Activist Kate Richards O'Hare
- 1993 - R. Douglas Hurt, Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie