With the recent announcement that Ari Kelman won the Brancroft Prize for his book, A Misplace Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek (which I profiled last August), some of us Westerners have been talking on social media about the history of Western history titles winning the Bancroft. For those unfamiliar with the Bancroft Prize, it is awarded to 2-3 U.S. history titles per year by Columbia University and is generally regarded as the premier book award for American history. We're not just talking "the premier award in western history" - but the premier award for ALL American history. (Traditionally it skewed towards diplomatic history, but less so in recent decades.) This is why it is such a big deal for a field when Continue readingWestern History and the Bancroft Prize