In the spring of each year, the Society makes awards to high school graduates who have demonstrated excellence in the study of history. Nominations for these awards have been made by principals, social studies APs, and teachers at 96 public, private, and parochial schools throughout Brooklyn. Over 1,820 award recipients have been honored by the Society.

Honorees have demonstrated excellence in their schools in the study of history. They need not be the most outstanding history students in their schools: educators at schools that already make awards for excellence in the study of history are welcome to nominate students who would not otherwise receive an award. Alternatively, the New England Society award may be used to supplement other awards – especially where such awards do not provide a physical object (such as a book) for the student to keep. Our history prize is intended for presentation by the school in conjunction with the conferring of other awards – either at graduation or at an awards ceremony.

The Society’s award consists of a book, inside the front cover of which is a bookplate naming the award and the award recipient, as shown here:

History Award Bookplate

Past Books Awarded

  • Bell-Scott, Patricia. The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship, Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice. NY: Knopf, 2016.
  • Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1998.
  • Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. NY: Penguin Press, 2004.
  • Ellis, Joseph. His Excellency, George Washington. NY: Knopf, 2004.
  • Everdell, William R. The First Moderns: Profiles in the Origins of Twentieth Century Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
  • Fraser, Rebecca. The Mayflower: The Families, the Voyage, and the Founding of America. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.
  • Guha, Ramachandra. Gandhi Before India. NY: Knopf, 2013.
  • Hendy, David. Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening. NY: HarperCollinsEcco, 2013.
  • Holt, Nathalia. Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon and Mars. Boston: Little Brown, 2016.
  • Hogeland, William. Autumn of the Black Snake. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017.
  • Isenberg, Nancy. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. NY: Viking, 2016.
  • Jaffe, Steven H. New York at War: Four Centuries of Combat, Fear, and Intrigue in Gotham. NY: Basic Books, 2012.
  • Jones, Steve. Revolutionary Science: Transformation and Turmoil in the Age of the Guillotine. NY: Pegasus, 2017.
  • Meyer, Karl, & Shareen Blair Brysac. Tournament of Shadow: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1999.
  • Rapport, Mike. Rebel Cities: Paris, London and New York in the Age of Revolution. Boston: Little Brown, 2017.
  • Reid, David. The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia. NY: Pantheon, 2016.
  • Starkey, Steven H. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. London: Chatto & Windus, 2003.
  • Warren, James A. God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians Against the Puritans of New England. NY: Scribner, 2018.

— View the complete list of previous History Award recipients —