First Book Award
The Immigration and Ethnic History Society awards a prize to recognize the work of early career scholars in the field of U.S. immigration and ethnic history. The First Book Award is a $2,000 award presented annually at the IEHS banquet during the OAH for the book judged best on any aspect of the immigration and ethnic history of the United States and/or North America.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the award, a book must be copyrighted 2023, must be based on substantial primary research, must present a major new scholarly interpretation, and must be an author’s first academic monograph. Edited collections or multi-authored books are not eligible.
The $2,000 award will be presented at the annual IEHS banquet in 2024.
A book may be nominated by its author, the publisher, a member of the prize committee, or a member of the Society.
Inquiries and nominations should be submitted to firstbookaward@iehs.org, which will reach all committee members.
Committee Members
Ashley Johnson-Bavery (Chair), Carl Lindskoog, Mike Amezcua
Dr. Ashley Johnson-Bavery
Department of History & Philosophy
701 Pray Harrold Hall
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Dr. Carl Lindskoog
Raritan Valley Community College
Department of Humanities Social Science Social Work and Education
Somerset Hall, S-336
118 Lamington Rd.
Branchburg, NJ 08876
Dr. Mike Amezcua
Georgetown University
Department of History
ICC 600
3700 O Street, NW
Washington DC
Previous Recipients
2023
Mike Amezcua
Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification.
(University of Chicago Press, 2022).
2023 – Honorable Mention
Kristina Shull
Detention Empire: Reagan’s War on Immigrants and the Seeds of Resistance.
(University of North Carolina Press, 2022)
2022
Jessica Ordaz
The Shadow of El Centro: A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity.
(University of North Carolina Press, 2021)
2021
Ashley Johnson Bavery
Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America’s Northern Border
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021)
2020
Danielle Battisti
Whom We Shall Welcome: Italian Americans and Immigration Reform
(Fordham University Press, 2019)
2019
Rosina Lozano
An American Language: The History of Spanish in the United States (University of California Press, 2018)
Honorable Mention
Daniel Inouye, Distant Islands: The Japanese American Community in New York City, 1876-1930s. (University Press of Colorado, 2018)
2018
Hidetaka Hirota
Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy. (Oxford University Press.)
Honorable Mention
Rachel Kranson, Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America.. University of North Carolina Press.
2017
Lori Flores - 2017
2016
Adam D. Mendelsohn - 2016
The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire. New York University Press.
2015
Ellen Wu - 2015
The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority. Princeton University Press.