NEW YORK, March 14, 2008 The authors of three acclaimed books, one a comprehensive study of the tobacco industry, one a reassessment of the Populist movement, and one a study of the role of frontier violence in eighteenth-century America, will be awarded the Bancroft Prize for 2008, Columbia University announced today.

The winners are Allan M. Brandt for The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America (New York: Basic Books), Charles Postel for The Populist Vision (New York: Oxford University Press), and Peter Silver for Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company)

One of the most coveted honors in the field of history, the Bancroft is awarded annually by the Trustees of Columbia University to the authors of books of exceptional merit in the fields of American history, biography and diplomacy. The 2008 awards are for books published in 2007.

Columbia University Provost Alan Brinkley will present the awards to the recipients at a formal dinner next month at the University’s Low Memorial Library, hosted by the Department of History and the University Libraries.

The Bancroft Prize, which includes an award of $10,000 to each author, is administered by James Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia.

“Over 200 books were nominated for consideration by the Bancroft jury this year,” said University Librarian James Neal. “Once again, we were very impressed by the number of excellent submissions covering a broad range of themes, and are proud to honor this year’s winners…The Bancroft prize is a celebration and affirmation of historical scholarship, the library, the book, the academic press, and the reportedly threatened scholarly monograph.”

Allan M. Brandt, author of The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America, is the Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. He is author of No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880 (Oxford, 1985).

Charles Postel, author of The Populist Vision, is Assistant Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento. He writes on U.S nineteenth-century politics, specializing in reform movements.

Peter Silver, author of Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America, is Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University. He writes on American Indian history, religious history, and comparative colonial and imperial histories.

The Bancroft Prizes were established at Columbia in 1948 with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, the historian, author and librarian of the Department of State, to provide steady development of library resources, to support instruction and research in American history and diplomacy and to recognize exceptional books in the field. To see a list of past winners, visit:
www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides/amerihist/bancroftlist.html

Columbia University Libraries/Information Services is one of the top five academic research library systems in North America. The collections include over 10 million volumes, over 100,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, graphic and audio-visual materials. The services and collections are organized into 25 libraries and various academic technology centers. The Libraries employs more than 550 professional and support staff. The website of the Libraries at www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/ is the gateway to its services and resources.

About Columbia University Founded in 1754 as King’s College, Columbia University in the City of New York is the fifth oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and today is one of the world’s leading academic and research institutions. For more information about Columbia University, visit www.columbia.edu.