Three books have been named finalists for the 2024 Cundill History Prize.

The $75,000 (U.S.) prize is administered by McGill University and awarded annually each year to a book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.

The three finalists were chosen from an eight-book shortlist announced last month. The jury for this year’s prize is comprised of chair Rana Mitter, Canadian journalist Stephanie Nolen, Nicole Eustace, Moses Ochonu, and Rebecca L. Spang. Each finalist receives $10,000 (U.S.).

The finalists are:

• Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass (Picador/Pan Macmillan)
• Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal (Penguin Random House)
• Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth (Liveright Publishing)

Mitter said “the fierce urgency of history” unites all three books named finalists for this year’s prize. “Each one is a brilliantly crafted, deeply researched work of historical scholarship,” Mitter said in a press release. “But each also speaks to issues that are still very much with us in the world of the 21st century – tense geopolitics, questions of law, rights, and society, and above all, the complex and often counterintuitive interactions of human beings in the past that illuminate the present.”

The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Montreal on Oct. 30.