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Starr Center Donates 50+ New Washington-Era History Books to Miller Library

Chestertown, MD, December 21, 2006 — It was a veritable book bonanza on a recent wintry afternoon at Clifton M. Miller Library, as Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience made its yearly donation-delivery of a mountain of new volumes on early America.

Adam Goodheart and Ruth Shoge
Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, presents a donation of more than 50 new books on early American history to Ruth Shoge, Director of Miller Library.

The books are all entrants in the annual George Washington Prize, now in its third year. One of the nation's largest literary awards, the George Washington Prize honors outstanding books that contribute to a greater public understanding of the life and career of George Washington and/or America's founding era. Conceived and administered at the Starr Center (in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mount Vernon), the $50,000 annual prize is awarded by a panel of nationally distinguished historians.

One of the prerequisites for entering the George Washington Prize competition is that the publisher must supply one extra copy of the book for donation to Miller Library. The result? Virtually every major book regarding the founding period published each year is now ending up in the Miller Library collection. And such will be the case, year by year, from here on in, thanks to the George Washington Prize. It amounts to a true book-acquisition coup for WC's library. "One of the things that excites me most about the program," remarked Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Starr Center, "is that it serves as a conduit for all of these volumes straight into Miller Library."

The number of George Washington Prize entrants continues to grow. "This year we got in more titles than ever before," said Goodheart.

The donation to the library amounts to some 52 books, with a total retail value of approximately $1,800.

"It certainly strengthens our collection on George Washington, the Founders, and the whole founding era," said an appreciative Dr. Ruth Shoge, Director of Miller Library. "I'm impressed with the wide variety of subjects on the era ... the financial aspects, slavery, gender ... I think the scholarship is really opening up on that period, beyond the Founders to other issues we still grapple with."

Goodheart likewise noted the great diversification that is the concomitant result of the current proliferation of Colonial/Revolutionary historiography. In addition to a healthy number of new titles about Washington and other household-name heroes of early America, "We're now seeing a flood of books on lesser known aspects ... advancing our knowledge of the period in many ways."

Meanwhile, the prestigious George Washington Prize judging panel is perusing industriously, narrowing down the field. (And as the number of books vying for the prize continues to grow, so too does the amount of reading for the judges.) The ultimate winner will be announced in May.

The exhaustive roundup of entrants from literally dozens of publishing houses was handled by the hardworking duo of Interim Book Prize Coordinator Charles Hohman '05 and Starr Center Program Manager Kees deMooy '01.

Books Donated

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