Henry Paolucci	Walter Bagehot

The Award
The ISI Henry Paolucci/Walter Bagehot Book Award recognizes and advances the considerable scholarly and journalistic achievements of Henry Paolucci and Walter Bagehot by honoring each year one book that embodies the humane and liberal spirit of these two men of letters. Their achievements will be long remembered by those who had the privilege of hearing them lecture or who have had the opportunity to read one of their many books, articles, or speeches. Through their scholarly work, their tireless pursuit of academic, literary, and journalist excellence, and their political and moral commitments, Paolucci and Bagehot exemplify ISI's ideal of the public intellectual. This award recalls and proclaims their example to all who aspire to the intellectual life.

This prestigious award was launched in the mid-sixties by the Walter Bagehot Research Council. Since 2004, the annual award has been presented by ISI to a deserving scholar whose intellectual achievement—as made manifest in the form of a book published in the previous year-embodies the spirit, range, and scholarly rigor of the award's namesakes. The amount of the award is $5,000.

Nominations from individuals and publishing houses are hereby solicited for the Henry Paolucci/Walter Bagehot Book Award. Submissions should embody impeccable scholarship and a respect for the historical continuity of the subject. They should also avoid factional or partisan argument and contribute in a significant way to the literature of the subject. Particular attention will be given to works that focus on American domestic or foreign policy, constitutional law, jurisprudence, and American history. Books in other areas of the humanities will also be considered, including the following:

• political science (especially political philosophy)
• higher education in the United States
• English literature and comparative literature (nonfiction only)
• intellectual history
• the future of the humanities
• history
• philosophy
• history of science

Nominated books should display a cross- or interdisciplinary approach to their subjects. They should also bring first principles to bear on important academic, political, or cultural concerns. The book deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the advancement of a true partnership between the mind and soul, or to the explication of the essential unity between man's rational and spiritual natures, will be honored.

The selection committee will include two members of the Walter Bagehot Research Council on National Sovereignty; the president of Griffon House publications; Anne Paolucci; and three senior members of ISI’s staff.

NOMINATION DEADLINE FOR AWARD: May 15

Award finalists will be announced on or around August 15. The winner of the Henry Paolucci/Walter Bagehot Book Award will be announced on or around August 30.

The winner will be asked to give a public lecture at ISI's F. M. Kirby Campus in Wilmington, Delaware, in early October. The lecture and award ceremony will be followed by a reception.

Eligibility: Only single-authored, nonfiction books first published in English in the award year, including translations, are eligible for selection. New editions of previously published works are ineligible (including new translations of previously translated works). Books published by ISI Books or authored by ISI staff are not eligible for the award. Self-nominations will not be accepted.

In accepting the award, the winner agrees to give a public lecture in early October of the award year at ISI's F. M. Kirby Campus in Wilmington, Delaware.

To nominate a book: Please send two new copies, together with any promotional materials sent out by the publisher (including an author photograph) to:

The Paolucci/Bagehot Book Award
Intercollegiate Studies Institute
3901 Centerville Road
Wilmington, DE 19807-1938

Past Winners
2010 - Advice to War Presidents (Basic Books) 2009 - Law and Judicial Duty (Harvard University Press)
2008 - A Secular Age (Belknap Harvard)
2007 - A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 (HarperCollins)
2006 - Executive Secrets
2005 - Renaissance Perfected
2004 - Prosperity and Plunder