Awards

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Best Book in Political History

2021 Winner

Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

By Professor Heidi Bohaker. The Osgoode Society is thrilled to announce that Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance, by Professor Heidi Bohaker, has been awarded the Canadian Historical Association’s Prize for Best Book in Political History Prize. Congratulations to Professor Bohaker. Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance Through Alliance also...

Best Book in Indigenous History

2021 Winner

The Laws and the Land: The Settler Colonial Invasion of Kahnawà:ke in Nineteenth-Century Canada

This Osgoode Society members book for 2021, has recently been awarded two major prizes. It has been chosen as the co-winner of the Best Book in Indigenous History by the Canadian Historical Association. It has also been chosen as the winner of the Best Book in Canadian Studies Prize, given...

Canadian Historical Association Awards

2020 Honourable Mention

Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

Clio Award, Regional History

2025 Winner

Deadly Swindle: An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario That Gripped the World

Our first Optional Extra title for 2024 is Ian Radforth, Deadly Swindle: An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario That Gripped the World, published by the University of Toronto Press. Deadly Swindle is a fascinating journey into life and law in late nineteenth-century Canada. Its jumping off point is the murder of Frederick Cornwallis Benwell, whose...

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

2023 Winner

A History of Law in Canada Volume II: Law for the New Dominion, 1867-1914

By Jim Phillips, Philip Girard, and R. Blake Brown, published by the University of Toronto Press. Winner of the Canadian Law and Society Association Prize for the best book published in 2022. Jim Phillips is Professor of Law and History at the University of Toronto. Philip Girard is Professor of Law...

J.J. Talman Award

2000 Winner

‘Terror to Evil-Doers’: Prisons and Punishments in Nineteenth-Century Ontario

by Peter Oliver, Professor of History, York University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1998. We are delighted that Peter Oliver has agreed to include his seminal work on prisons and punishments in nineteenth century Ontario in the Osgoode Society's Publications Series. Professor Oliver's book draws on a huge range...

Fred Landon Award

2013 Winner

The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884

by Robert J. Sharpe, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2011. Robert Sharpe is one of the Osgoode Society's most prolific authors, and his latest offering is a compelling account of a late nineteenth century murder case in Picton, Ontario. This...

Joseph Brant Award

2021 Winner

Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

Alison Prentice Award

2007 Winner

Misconceptions: Unmarried Motherhood and the Ontario Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-1969

by Lori Chambers, Professor, Department of History and Women's Studies, Lakehead University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2007. This book is a study of the operation of the Children of Unmarried Parents Act, in the courts and, principally, through the agency responsible for administering the Act, the Childrens' Aid...

Best Book in Canadian Studies, given by the Canadian Studies Association

2021 Winner

The Laws and the Land: The Settler Colonial Invasion of Kahnawà:ke in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Fondation du Barreau du Québec Monograph Prize

2020 Winner

Wounded Feelings: Litigating Emotions in Quebec, 1870-1950

Eric Reiter’s Wounded Feelings: Litigating Emotions in Quebec, has been named as a co-winner of the monograph prize from the Fondation du Barreau du Québec. The official notice can be found here: https://www.fondationdubarreau.qc.ca/decouvrez-les-laureats-du-concours-juridique-2021-et-les-regles-de-ledition-2022/. The Osgoode Society is thrilled to announce that Wounded Feelings: Litigating Emotions in Quebec 1870-1950, by Professor Eric Reiter, has...

Walter Owen Book Prize

2019 Honourable Mention

A History of Law in Canada Volume 1: Beginnings to 1866

By Philip Girard, Jim Phillips, and Blake Brown. Published by the University of Toronto Press. This book, the first of 2 volumes, presents the history of law in what is now Canada, from the first European contacts with northern North America in the very early sixteenth century to immediately before...

Outstanding Book

1993 Winner

Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada

by Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa. Published with Womens Press, 1991. This is the first comprehensive work in the field of Canadian women's legal history. Author Constance Backhouse, an internationally-recognized authority on Canadian women's legal history, has compiled here the most important of her decade's worth of research....

Donner Prize

1998 Finalist

White Man’s Law: Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence

by Sidney Harring. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1998. In recent years numerous important books have appeared which deal with the history of aboriginal populations in early Canada. Although these studies add enormously to our understanding of the role played by native peoples in the British North American...

Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker’s Book Award

2015 Finalist

The Court of Appeal for Ontario: Defining the Right of Appeal, 1792-2013

by Christopher Moore, published with the University of Toronto Press. 2014. 40, student price $20. Before 1850 the Court of Appeal for Ontario was the Governor’s Executive Council. In 1850 the Court of Error and Appeal for Canada West met for the first time, the first appeal court for what...

Arthur Ellis Award

2000 Winner

The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

by A.B. McKillop, Professor of History, Carleton University. Published with Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, 2000. One of Canada's pre-eminent historians, A.B. McKillop has restored to life a unique tale of heroism and intrigue, obsession and betrayal. The novelist and social prophet H.G. Wells had a way with words, and usually had his...

City of Toronto Book Prize

2000 Winner

The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Drainie-Taylor Prize for Biography

2001 Finalist

The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

UBC Medal for Canadian Biography

2001 Winner

The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

RBC Taylor Prize

2014 Short-listed

The Massey Murder: A Maid, her Master, and the Trial that Shocked a Nation

by Charlotte Gray, Independent Historian, published with Harper Collins, 2013. $25.00. In 1915 Carrie Davies, an 18-year old servant girl in the home of Charles (Bert) Massey, scion of the famous Massey family, shot and killed her employer as he entered his house after work. Remarkably, she was acquitted, and...

Charles Taylor Award

2002 Winner

The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Priz Lionel Groulx

2007 Winner

Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

by Donald Fyson, Professor of History, Universite Laval. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2006. This book is a study of everyday criminal justice in Quebec and Lower Canada between the Conquest and the Rebellions, concentrating on the justices of the peace and the police. The first half explores the...

Harold Adams Innis Prize

2009 Short-listed

Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975

by Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa. Published with Irwin Law, 2008. An engaging and powerful book about sexual assault crimes in Canadian history, by Professor Constance Backhouse, whose previous books for the Osgoode Society have won major awards. Using a case-study approach, Professor Backhouse explores nine sexual assault...

John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize

2021 Short-listed

Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance

Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction

2000 Finalist

The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past

Floyd Chalmers Award

2005 Winner

Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to Life

by Philip Girard, Professor of Law, History & Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University, 2005. Published with the University of Toronto Press. In any account of Canadian law in the 20th century, Bora Laskin looms large. This biography explores in vivid detail the life and times of a restless man on a...

J. Willard Hurst Prize

2007 Honourable Mention

Magistrates, Police and People: Everyday Criminal Justice in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1764-1837

Awards

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Best Book in Political History

Best Book in Indigenous History

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Clio Award, Regional History

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Ontario Historical Society Awards

J.J. Talman Award

Fred Landon Award

Joseph Brant Award

Alison Prentice Award

Other Awards

Best Book in Canadian Studies, given by the Canadian Studies Association

Fondation du Barreau du Québec Monograph Prize

Walter Owen Book Prize

Outstanding Book

Donner Prize

Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker’s Book Award

Arthur Ellis Award

City of Toronto Book Prize

Drainie-Taylor Prize for Biography

UBC Medal for Canadian Biography

RBC Taylor Prize

Charles Taylor Award

Priz Lionel Groulx

Harold Adams Innis Prize

John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize

Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction

Floyd Chalmers Award

J. Willard Hurst Prize

Awards

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Best Book in Political History

Best Book in Indigenous History

Canadian Historical Association Awards

Clio Award, Regional History

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize

Ontario Historical Society Awards

J.J. Talman Award

Fred Landon Award

Joseph Brant Award

Alison Prentice Award

Other Awards

Best Book in Canadian Studies, given by the Canadian Studies Association

Fondation du Barreau du Québec Monograph Prize

Walter Owen Book Prize

Outstanding Book

Donner Prize

Legislative Assembly of Ontario Speaker’s Book Award

Arthur Ellis Award

City of Toronto Book Prize

Drainie-Taylor Prize for Biography

UBC Medal for Canadian Biography

RBC Taylor Prize

Charles Taylor Award

Priz Lionel Groulx

Harold Adams Innis Prize

John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize

Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction

Floyd Chalmers Award

J. Willard Hurst Prize

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