Jon Gjerde Prize
The Jon Gjerde Prize is given annually by the Midwestern History Association to the author(s) of the best book in Midwestern history published during the previous calendar year (2024). The prize is named for the late historian of immigration and ethnicity, who made significant contributions to the historical understanding of American history, especially the history of the people of the Midwest.
First, the Jon Gjerde Prize Committee wants to thank the authors for submitting such an enjoyable and diverse slate of books for this year’s prize. We commend the submissions for their work in continuing to push the boundaries of Midwestern History. The committee selected Erik S. McDuffie’s The Second Battle for Africa: Garveyism, the US Heartland, and Global Black Freedom (Duke University Press) as this year’s winner. Additionally, we selected Sergio González's Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging & Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (University of Illinois Press) as an Honorable Mention.
McDuffie highlights the history of the deep connections between the Midwest and Garveyism, as much as he ties this past to other historical moments like settlement in the Old Northwest and later the Great Migration. Whereas Garveyism and Black transnational history is often linked to Caribbean intellectuals, McDuffie shows how the UNIA developed within the nation's middle. The Second Battle for Africa uses the framework of the “Diasporic Midwest” to argue for the importance of the region to Black transnationalism. The “Diasporic Midwest” as a theoretical framework, a key part of the argument, runs throughout the book’s chapters and guides the reader throughout Midwestern cityscapes, like Gary, St. Louis, Lansing, and Chicago. Additionally, McDuffie’s consideration of gender dynamics within Garveyism, and the contribution of women in the Midwest to Black nationalism, was also an effective thread that ran throughout the book. This was particularly effective in refuting the idea of Louisa Little as an apolitical figure, and instead revealing her as a formative and collaborative stakeholder in this transnational project. The committee appreciated that McDuffie did not shy away from the paradoxes of the movement, integrating discussions of settler colonialism and concepts of civilization as important frames to understand Garveyism in the region. Overall, the theoretical framework and history presented in this text offer numerous opportunities to push our framing of the Midwest as not an isolated region, or a homogeneous space, but as a rich, diverse, and globalized space.
Strangers No Longer is a timely book that connects to national discussions of immigration and immigrants’ experiences. The discussion of multiple places in Wisconsin, especially Milwaukee, shows how Wisconsin Latinos worked to build communities and create a home in the Midwest. The argument–related to hospitality and power dynamics–runs throughout the study, guiding the reader from conversations of welcoming the stranger to building a faith network that makes them quite literally strangers no longer. This book also had a strong research base, and the inclusion of oral history/interviews was a considerable strength. González's impressive research and storytelling, which explores the robust history of Latino faith networks and migration, gives Midwestern historians a model for a richer understanding of the contemporary region. Additionally, it reminds us of the daunting task - and need to study - the generations of immigrants that continue to settle and forge their livelihoods in the Midwest. The committee highly commend these projects and appreciate the great variety of submissions this year.
Publishers and authors are invited to submit books for consideration. A copy of the nominated book should be sent to each of the following committee members. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 31, 2025.
Emiliano Aguilar
Department of History
University of Notre Dame
434 Decio Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Michelle Cassidy
Department of History, World Languages, and Cultures
Pearce Hall 305, 1501 S. Washington St.
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant, MI 48859
Andrew Offenburger
Miami Univ. History Department
100 Bishop Circle, Upham Hall 236
Oxford, OH 45056
Past Recipients
2024 - Erik S. McDuffie, The Second Battle for Africa: Garveyism, the US Heartland, and Global Black Freedom https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-second-battle-for-africa
Honorable Mention - Sergio González's, Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging & Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p087943
2022 - Jon Lauck, The Good Country https://www.oupress.com/9780806190648/the-good-country/
2021 - Samantha Seeley, Race, Removal and the Right to Remain https://uncpress.org/book/9781469664811/race-removal-and-the-right-to-remain/
2020 - Joseph Stanhope Cialdella Motor City Green https://upittpress.org/books/9780822945727/
2019 - Lauren Kroitz Cultivating Citizens: The Regional Work of Art in the New Deal Era https://www.ucpress.edu/books/cultivating-citizens/hardcover#awards
2018 - Christopher Phillips, The Rivers Ran Backwards, https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rivers-ran-backward-9780195187236?cc=us&lang=en&
2017 - Andrew Diamond, Chicago on the Make https://www.ucpress.edu/books/chicago-on-the-make/paper#awards
2016 - Jason Weems, Barnstorming the Prairies https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816677511/barnstorming-the-prairies/
2015 - Brenda Child, My Grandfather's Knocking Sticks, https://shop.mnhs.org/products/my-grandfathers-knocking-sticks
Photo by Cory Haala