Winner IBP 2009 Humanities

Anthony Barbieri-Low, Artisans in Early Imperial China. University of Washington Press, 2007.

Artisans in Early Imperial China is an outstanding work of original and pioneering scholarship which draws on a tremendous depth of archaeological, epigraphical and textual sources to highlight the character, role and history of the artisans who actually created the splendid material artefacts of early China. Ranging over a variety of material objects, from grave-stones to the well known figures of the Terracotta Army, the author identifies their creators, explores their training and technical processes, and situates them in their social roles and status. He does so in a manner which is clear and concise, as well as engaging and informative. While opening the field to further studies developing this enquiry he has produced a work that will inform and be enjoyed by any scholar or interested person in a wide-range of related fields. This is also an extremely well produced work, a credit to its publishers. It is beautifully illustrated and laid-out with all of the necessary academic apparatus provided; a model of its kind.

Shortlist IBP 2009 Humanities

Hilde De Weerdt, Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (1127-1279). Harvard University Press, 2007.

Kees van Dijk, The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914-1918. KITLV Press, 2007.

Robert Harrist Jr., Landscape of Words: Stone Inscriptions from Early and Medieval China. University of Washington Press, 2008.