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The 2024 Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge
Underground Railroad Free Press, Sept 16, 2024
THE PRIZE RECOGNIZES a significant addition to the store of Underground Railroad knowledge and may be awarded for a single contribution such as a landmark publication, or for a body of work or the arts, or for creating or advancing a collection. Individuals, legal entities such as corporations or nonprofit corporations, or informal groups from any nation are eligible.
The 2024 Free Press Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge is awarded to historian Fergus Bordewich for his book Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, and for his lifelong attention to racial justice.
In our opinion, Bound for Canaan is the unequaled and definitive history of the Underground Railroad and its illumination as the "country's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change." In 2005, Bound for Canaan was selected as one of the American Booksellers Association's "ten best nonfiction books"; as the Great Lakes Booksellers' Association's "best non-fiction book"; as one of the Austin Public Library's Best Non-Fiction books; and as one of the New York Public Library's "ten books to remember."
Because Bound for Canaan came out in 2005 three years before the first Free Press Prizes were awarded, the book got overlooked in the prizes when it shouldn't have. This year's award is far overdue. Since Bound for Canaan’s publication, Bordewich has been acknowledged as perhaps the leading expert on the Underground Railroad and a go-to source on the topic.
Since the publication of Bound for Canaan, Fergus Bordewich has gone on to write a series of well-received histories on what the United States Congress was doing—or not doing—during times such as the Washington and Lincoln administrations when the executive branch was getting most of the attention. Fergus Bordewich is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated author whose work has also emphasized the plight of the American Indian and the allure of pre-Communist China.
In 2013, Bordewich was awarded the Los Angeles Book Prize for America's Great Debate, which the Times named the best work of history published in 2012. Bordewich’s Washington was named by Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post as one of his "Best Books of 2008."
Since the founding of Underground Railroad Free Press in 2006, Bordewich has been a source of encouragement and good advice to the publication. He served as a judge on the Free Press Panel of Judges, advising on prize nominations and has been the nominator of several candidates who went on to be awarded Free Press Prizes.
About the Underground Railroad Free Press: Published bimonthly since 2006, we bring together organizations and people interested in the historical and the contemporary Underground Railroad. Free Press is the home of Lynx, the central registry of contemporary Underground Railroad organizations, and the Free Press prizes awarded annually for leadership, preservation and advancement of knowledge, the community's highest honors. Underground Railroad Free Press is emailed free of charge around the 15th of odd-numbered months. Reach us at http://urrfreepress.com/contact.html.