Jon Ben Snow Prize Shortlist 2024

Dear All,

The committee has selected the following three books for the 2024 John Ben Snow Prize shortlist for the best book in British Studies dealing with the period prior to 1800.

• Vera Keller, The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge (Johns Hopkins University Press) 

• Philip Stern, Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations that Built British Colonialism (Harvard University Press)

• Kathleen Wilson, Strolling Players of Empire: Theater and Performances of Power in the British Imperial Provinces, 1656-1833 (Cambridge University Press)

• Eleanor Johnson, Waste and Wasters: Poetry and Ecosystemic Thought in Medieval England (University of Chicago Press)

Brief descriptions of the books and links to the publishers’ websites appear below. The winner of the Snow Prize will be announced at the NACBS national conference in November.

Vera Keller, The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge (Johns Hopkins University Press) 

In The Interlopers, Vera Keller reframes how the early modern scientific revolution should be understood. Challenging received notions of a 'Baconian project' that high-mindedly ushered in the first stirrings of Britain's 'scientific revolution', Keller argues that the commercial and technical projects which proliferated in early Stuart Britain instead reflect a culture of appropriation, a pursuit of wealth and personal reward, and a disregard for the supposed boundaries between different fields of knowledge. Drawing upon an array of sources in multiple languages, Keller's book portrays how individual projectors scrambled for success (and responded to persistent failures) within a 'riskscape' which was ultimately enabled by the political and financial needs of the early Stuart monarchy.

Philip Stern, Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations that Built British Colonialism (Harvard University Press)

Empire, Incorporated is a sweeping consideration of how corporations and the dynamics of corporate finance, rather than the British crown, drove British colonialism and empire. Spanning four hundred years, from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and most of the world, Stern deftly examines the incredible power of British corporations, arguing that – in the main – the source of this power (venture colonialism) was their ability to be multiple entities at the same time – both personal and anonymous, structured and changeable, foreign and local. The end result is an important reconsideration of the place of corporations in the growth of colonialism and empire. 

Kathleen Wilson, Strolling Players of Empire: Theater and Performances of Power in the British Imperial Provinces, 1656-1833 (Cambridge University Press)

In Strolling Players of Empire, Kathleen Wilson examines how touring theatrical companies both reflected and shaped the culture of empire in Britain's long eighteenth century. Wilson explores the role that theatre played in five eighteenth-century British port settlements: Kingston (Jamaica), Calcutta, Sydney, St. Helena and Fort Marlborough (Sumatra), and argues that plays and their players did not simply reflect the influence of the growing British Empire, but also enabled colonised populations to re-imagine themselves through British dramas and, eventually, to help re-shape notions of Britishness within Britain itself. This book is a performance study writ large, not only spanning the globe but also posing large questions about the enacting of British imperial politics and identity.

Eleanor Johnson, Waste and Wasters: Poetry and Ecosystemic Thought in Medieval England (University of Chicago Press)

In Waste and the Wasters, Eleanor Johnson inspires readers to rethink what they know of the medieval world by using an eco-critical approach to explore concepts of waste and wastefulness in medieval English poetry, religious sources, and legal texts, connecting the very real concerns of our world to what is often perceived as a far-distant past with little relevance to the present day. What emerges is a fascinating examination of how closely medieval concerns about a changing climate and damage to the medieval English ecosystem can be seen to parallel our own similar anxieties. Grounded in solid historical scholarship, the book offers sensitive and compelling new readings of important Middle English texts, including Winner and Waster, Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer's tale of the Canon's Yeoman. Eleanor Johnson's book is rich in ideas, clear and concise in its arguments, and highly accessible in its writing style. Waste and the Wasters is both a beautifully crafted piece of scholarship and a beautifully written book, which simultaneously addresses matters of urgent concern to our modern world and serves as a reminder of the enduring value of studying the history and culture of medieval Britain.

Congratulations to these authors for their outstanding scholarship.

Best wishes,

John Ben Snow Prize Committee

NACBS Executive