Thomas W. Laqueur, Helen Fawcett Professor of History, has been selected as the winner of the George L. Mosse Prize by the American Historical Association and named as a finalist for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature by McGill University. Both honors are in recognition of Laqueur’s book, “The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains” (Princeton University Press, 2015).

Calling him a “modern Charon,” the Mosse Prize committee noted:

Laqueur’s haunting book brilliantly tackles a fundamental historical question: how humanity relates to the dead. His magisterial account establishes that throughout the premodern and modern periods, the world has never been disenchanted; the dead have always had agency in defining what it means to be human.

Laqueur will be awarded the Mosse Prize at the AHA’s 131st Annual Meeting in Denver, Jan. 5-8, 2017. (See the full list of 2016 award-winners on the AHA’s blog.)

In being named as a Cundill finalist, Laqueur is also eligible for a grand prize of $75,000 or one of two Recognition of Excellence prizes of $10,000 each.