Award collection

James Bradford Biography Prize

The James Bradford Biography Prize, presented by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), honors an outstanding original biography of a person active during the Early Republic. The prize interprets biography broadly, recognizing books that use individual lives to illuminate the political, social, cultural, intellectual, and economic forces that shaped early America. By rewarding rigorous research alongside compelling historical storytelling, the award highlights biography’s power to connect personal experience with the larger transformations of the early United States.