Historian Adam Tooze wins Lionel Gelber Prize for look at 2008 financial crisis

TORONTO – U.K.-born historian Adam Tooze is the winner of this year’s Lionel Gelber Prize for his book on the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis.

Tooze was awarded the $15,000 honour Tuesday for “Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World,” published by Viking.

Founded by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber in 1989, the literary prize honours the world’s best English-language non-fiction book on foreign affairs that aims to enrich public debate on international issues.

Tooze, a history professor at New York’s Columbia University, where he directs the European Institute, is the author of two other award-winning books, “The Deluge” and “The Wages of Destruction.”

He’s expected to accept his latest literary accolade and deliver a public lecture in Toronto on April 17.

In a statement Tuesday, Lionel Gelber jury chair Janice Stein praised “Crashed” as the “standard work” on the financial crisis that roiled across the United States, China and Europe.

“The global financial crisis of 2007-2009 undermined global capitalism, exposed the failures of banks to manage their risks, almost broke the Eurozone and played a role in the Ukrainian conflict, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump,” Stein said in a statement Tuesday.

“This is a big picture book … but Tooze never loses sight of the role of key individuals and the political context in which vital economic decisions were taken.”

Four other titles were shortlisted for the prize, including Elizabeth C. Economy’s “The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State” (Oxford University Press), Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America” (Tim Duggan Books), Rania Abouzeid’s “No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria” (W.W. Norton & Company) and Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die” (Crown).

Now in its 29th year, the award is presented annually by the Lionel Gelber Foundation, in partnership with Foreign Policy magazine and the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.