Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Historians at the Donner Prize

The big book prize for public policy wonks, the Donner Prize, has its shortlist out. Winner: 30 April.

The prolific northern historians Ken Coates and William Morrison, with Whitney Lackenbauer and Greg Poelzer, represent the history profession on the list. Also notable is Widdowson and Howard on the "aboriginal industry," a controversial book that has generated a little war among political scientists.

Courtesy of cbc.ca, the nominees are:
Arctic Front: Defending Canada in the Far North, by history professors and academics Ken S. Coates, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, William R. Morrison and Greg Poelzer.

Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State, by Tarek Fatah, host of CTS-TV program Muslim Chronicle.

Fixing the Future: How Canada's Usually Fractious Governments Worked Together to Rescue the Canada Pension Plan, by journalist and policy analyst Bruce Little.

The Limits of Boundaries: Why City-regions Cannot be Self-governing, by political science professor Andrew Sancton.

Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation, by policy studies professor Frances Widdowson and former government consultant Albert Howard.
Provocative list, when you add Sancton and Fatah. Gotta wonder if recent economic events have tarnished the optimism expressed in the title of Little's pensions book.

The Donner Canadian Foundation's own page on the nominees is here.
 
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