Beth Lew-Williams wins Cundill History Prize for book on anti-Chinese discrimination
TORONTO — Princeton professor Beth Lew-Williams has won this year's Cundill History Prize for "John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life under American Racial Law."
Princeton professor Beth Lew-Williams has been awarded the Cundill History Prize for her book "John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life under American Racial Law." The US$75,000 prize was presented to Lew-Williams during a ceremony in Montreal on Friday. The award recognizes her work for being "dazzlingly innovative and hard-hitting" as she explores the laws that constrained the lives of Chinese immigrants in 19th century American West.
Cundill jurors lauded her book for examining court records, immigration files, and personal accounts to showcase the extent of anti-Chinese discrimination and restore individuality and humanity to lives obscured by prejudice. The prize's runners-up, Jonathan Cheng and Alexander Lee, each receive US$10,000 for their books "Korean Messiah: Kim II Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult" and "The First Ghetto: Venice and the Jews" respectively.
The prestigious Cundill History Prize, run by McGill University, is awarded to exemplary history writing in English.
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- Beth Lew-Williams wins Cundill History Prize for book on anti-Chinese discrimination winnipegfreepress.com
