Wolfson History Prize Shortlist Announced
The six books shortlisted for this year’s Wolfson History Prize span vast historical territory yet collectively shed light on the ways in which societies are brought together – or driven apart – in the wake of profound disruption. The Wolfson History Prize, now in its 54th year, is the most valuable history writing prize in the UK, awarding the winner £50,000 and each of the five shortlisted authors £5,000, giving a combined total of £75,000.
Spanning nearly 3,000 years of human history, the six books shortlisted are: The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes (William Collins); Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction by Sadiah Qureshi (Allen Lane); Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War by Lyndal Roper (Basic Books); Liverpool: A Story of Britain by Sam Wetherell (Apollo); The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History by Selena Wisnom (Allen Lane) and Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe’s Last Pagan Peoples by Francis Young (Cambridge University Press).
The winner of the Wolfson History Prize 2026 will be revealed on December 1, 2026.