The Social History Society Book Prize rewards the best original works of social and cultural history by established authors. The prize was launched in 2018 and has become a key part of the society’s calendar and conference. Books are nominated by their publisher and judged by an independent panel of judges.
The Society is delighted to announce that this year’s winner is Professor Michael Roper for Afterlives of War: A Descendants’ History (Manchester University Press, 2023). Afterlives of War documents the lives and historical pursuits of the generations who grew up in Australia, Britain and Germany after the First World War, revealing the contribution of descendants to the contemporary memory of the conflict.
The judges described the book as:
A thoughtful and original account of World War I’s lasting impact on descendants in Britain, Australia, and Germany, drawing on oral history and personal memory to offer fresh insights into war’s influence on 20th-century culture and society. There is good analysis of the difficulties of reconstructing these memories and of the more complex accounts they suggest of the impact of the war on post-war culture and society than conventional interpretations.
Michael Roper is is a social and cultural historian based in the Sociology and Criminology Department at the University of Essex. He said:
The Society’s invitation to accept this prize arrived by email on the day after I retired from the University of Essex. For forty years the Sociology Department has been my academic home, but I am a social historian through and through, so to be honoured in this way by my colleagues gives me the greatest of pleasure.
Afterlives of War: A Descendant’s History occupied the last ten years of my career. It is a book that combines different identities and perspectives: a historian of post-war childhoods; an interviewer seeking knowledge from descendants; and a descendant myself, with a First World War history on both sides of my family. It was a painstaking and at times challenging task to render these different identities in all their complexity in a single book, but it was also a labour of love, so I am extra pleased that my efforts have been recognised by my peers. Thank-you!
This year’s runner up was Professor Laura Kelly of the University of Strathclyde for Contraception and Modern Ireland
A Social History, c. 1922–92 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), the first comprehensive, dedicated history of contraception in Ireland from the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 to the 1990s. Of the book, the judges said:
A very detailed, original study of the important topic of attitudes to, and uses of, contraception in 20th century Ireland. Contraception and Modern Ireland examines change (and lack of it) over time, including in the lives of individual women without legal access to contraception and their modes of resistance, whilst also providing insights into men’s experiences.
On receiving the Runner’s Up award, Kelly said:
I am really honoured and grateful to the Social History Society for this recognition. This book would not have been possible without the testimonies of the Irish women, men and activists I was privileged to interview: I wish to acknowledge their generosity with their time, their openness and in many instances, their bravery. I hope the book helps to demonstrate the negative impact that the suppression of reproductive rights can have on individuals’ lives, and show that such rights cannot be taken for granted.
The prize was awarded in person by Honorary Secretary Henry Irving at the Social History Society’s annual conference at the Black Country Living Museum.