Nominees Announced for the 2025 George Washington Prize, One of America’s Most Esteemed Literary Awards

07/16/2025

Starr Center supported prize enters its 20th year.

Nominees Announced for the 2025 George Washington Prize, One of America’s Most Esteemed Literary Awards

Five books published in 2024 by nationally acclaimed historians have been named finalists for the prestigious 2025 George Washington Prize. This annual award honors the year’s most outstanding works on America’s founding era, particularly those that deepen public understanding of early American history. 

Created by Washington College, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the $50,000 George Washington Prize is one of the nation’s largest and most notable literary awards. 

The 2025 George Washington Prize finalists are (in alphabetical order): 

“In the two decades since the first George Washington Prize was conferred in 2005, the award has honored an extraordinary range of works that shed new light on previously neglected histories. The 2025 roster of nominees shows that we are still experiencing a golden age of original scholarship on our nation’s founding era,” said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.  

Lindsay Chervinsky, Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, said, “The finalists are the best of rigorous and thoughtful history, written with delightful prose, compelling storytelling, and an eye to why history matters today. These books give us a better understanding of the founding era and our current moment, as only the best history can do."  

James Basker, President and CEO of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, said, “These insightful and thought-provoking works highlight the complexities of America’s founding and the struggles of its key figures. From John Dickinson’s foundational role in the Revolution to Thomas Jefferson’s contradictory stance on slavery, each book offers a fresh, nuanced perspective on the moral, political, and social challenges that shaped the early republic.” 

Each year since the Prize was created in 2005, an independent jury has evaluated 50 to 100 books published in the previous year that explore the history of the American founding era. The five books named finalists for the 2025 Prize are outstanding examples of robust and thought-provoking explorations of America’s unique history.  

The finalists will discuss their books at an event at George Washington’s Mount Vernon on Tuesday, August 12, 2025. The authors will be available for book signings immediately following the conversation. 

The George Washington Prize winner will be announced at a gala dinner in New York City on October 8, 2025.