Kars wins $75k Cundill History Prize for 'superbly researched' Blood on the River

Marjoleine Kars has won the 2021 Cundill History Prize for her "superbly researched" Blood on the River: a Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast (The New Press).

The $75,000 (£56,000) award is the largest financial prize for a work of non-fiction in English and was presented during a virtual ceremony on 2nd December. 

Jury chair Michael Ignatieff said: "Marjoleine Kars’ Blood on the River achieves something remarkable: it transforms our understanding of two vitally important subjects— slavery and empire—and it tells a story so dramatic, so compelling that no reader will be able to put the book down. It was the unanimous choice of our jury.” 

Kars is a professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. For Blood on the River she accessed a previously untapped Dutch archive to reveal the little-known story of a 1763 slave rebellion in Berbice, a Dutch colony in present-day Guyana. She draws on nearly 900 interrogation transcripts, including extremely rare verbatim accounts from suspected rebels, bystanders, and witnesses to provide a unique day-by-day account of the revolt, in the words of both colonists and the slaves themselves. 

Juror Eric Foner said the book was "a model of historical scholarship that promises to change our understanding of slavery and slave resistance in the Atlantic world". He added: "Using a remarkable hitherto unknown archive, Kars constructs a compelling narrative that illuminates the brutal nature of slavery in present-day Guyana. The slave rebels come across not as stereotypical heroes or villains, but as flesh and blood historical actors, who differed among themselves about the nature of freedom and the future place of their community in the Atlantic system. A brilliant stylist, Kars has constructed a gripping narrative that brings to life a forgotten world."

Juror Henrietta Harrison said Blood on the River was a "fascinating read... by someone who is interested in stories but also interested in people and how they work" while fellow juror Sunil Khilnani praised Kars' "deft narrative command". 

The two runners-up were historian Rebecca Clifford's Survivors: Children’s Lives After the Holocaust (Yale University Press), and Marie Favereau's The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World (Belknap Press of Harvard). They each receive a Recognition of Excellence Award of $10,000 (£7,485).

The prize ceremony concluded the Cundill History Prize Festival, a two-day programme of digital events. Camilla Townsend, last year's winner, kicked off the festival on 1st December by delivering the 2021 lecture on “Thinking About the Aztecs”. Later that day, the Cundill Forum saw a conversation between finalists Rebecca Clifford, Marie Favereau and Marjoleine Kars under the headline “Why Do We Rewrite History?”

Mary Hunter, interim dean of the faculty of arts at McGill University, which adminsters the award, said: “In our second year running the Cundill History Prize as a fully digital programme, we have reached an even bigger audience with some of the best history writing being produced right now, and today’s winner announcement marks the high point of another fantastic season of events. Our 2021 jurors have chosen three extremely relevant finalists and, with Marjoleine Kars’ Blood on the River, we have a winner that brilliantly combines what our prize is seeking: mastery of the historian’s craft, a compelling narrative, and a fresh perspective on a topic that couldn’t be more relevant today.”