History books on Haitian king, peasant uprising, personal choice vie for US$75K Cundill prize

The books “The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe,” “Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War” and “The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life," are shown in this handout photo as the Cundill History Prize announced three finalists. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Cundill History Prize (Mandatory Credit)

A biography of a little-known Haitian king is among the books vying for a US$75,000 book prize, administered by McGill University.

“The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe” by Marlene L. Daut of Yale University is competing against two other titles for the Cundill History Prize.

Also in the running is “The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life” by Sophia Rosenfeld of the University of Pennsylvania. It traces how the notion of personal choice came to define modern ideas of freedom.

Rounding out the short list is “Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War,” an account of the uprising as told by peasants by Lyndal Roper of the University of Oxford.

The finalists were chosen by an international panel of historians and writers, with jury chair Ada Ferrer of Princeton University lauding the authors for “remarkable creativity, rigorous research, and engaging prose.”

The winner will be announced Oct. 30 at the Cundill Festival in Montreal. The award grants two finalists US$10,000 each.

Panel member Sunil Amrith of Yale University said the finalists represent “a thrilling cross-section of historical writing” while fellow panel member and journalist Afua Hirsch hailed “significant histories at a critical moment.”

“It’s such a clever idea to tell a social history through the lens of choice, but Sophia Rosenfeld’s book also intersects in a really crucial way with the politics we’re living in right now,” Hirsch said Tuesday in a release.

“Unearthing sources that we’ve never seen before, in ‘The First and Last King of Haiti,’ Marlene Daut takes such a compelling personal story, that of King Christophe, who many people have still never heard of, and tells the story of the first Black republic, arguably the first true constitutional republic in the world.

“While Lyndal Roper reveals the little-known history of the biggest social rebellion in Europe before the French Revolution with such intricate detail and humanizing insight that we can smell and taste and feel the upheaval that was happening, and see the impact it would go on to have in Europe and the rest of the world.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2025.

Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press