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The Wadsworth Prize is awarded annually by the BAC to an individual judged to have made an outstanding contribution to the study of British business history in that year.
The Council awarded its Wadsworth Prize for Business History 2006 on 13 December 2007. The winner of the prize was Dr Terry Gourvish for his book The Official History of Britain and the Channel Tunnel, published by Routledge and part of the Cabinet Office's official history series. It was Dr Gourvish's second Wandsworth Prize.
The judges for the 2006 prize were Duncan Campbell-Smith, Dr Janet Greenlees and Professor Robin Pearson. The prize was presented by Professor Peter Mathias, Vice-President of the BAC at a reception held at the Sainsbury Study Centre, Museum in Docklands.
The Council awarded its Wadsworth Prize for Business History 2005 at Barclays plc in Canary Wharf on 7 December 2006. The winner of the prize, which is given annually to the best book in British business history, was Renewing Unilever: Transformation and Tradition, published by Oxford University Press. The successful author was Geoffrey Jones, Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School.
The panel of judges consisted of Howard Davies, Director of the LSE, Roy Edwards of Southampton University, and John Orbell, former archivist of ING. Dr Orbell presented the prize, which was accepted on Professor Jones's behalf by Dr Peter Miskell, of Reading University, one of the research assistants for the winning book. In his address Dr Orbell noted that once again the competition for the prize had been vigorous, reflecting the current strengths of the business history discipline in the UK.
The Council awarded its annual Wadsworth Prize in Business History for 2004 on 8th November 2005. The winner was Professor Robin Pearson of the University of Hull, for his book Insuring the Industrial Revolution. Fire Insurance in Great Britain, 1700-1850 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
The prize, which is awarded annually for the best book in British business history, was presented to Robin Pearson at Peter Jones, Sloane Square, by Ian Hay Davison, one of the judges. The other judges were Roy Edwards (University of Southampton) and John Orbell. A strong short-list of entries for this years prize reflects the growing influence and vitality of business history within the managerial science and historical studies disciplines.
The winner in 2003 was Professor J. Forbes Munro , emeritus professor of international history in the University of Glasgow, for his book Maritime Enterprise and Empire: Sir William Mackinnon and his Business Network, 1823-1893 (The Boydell Press, 2003).
The prize was presented to Professor Munro at the Bank of England by Ian Hay Davison, one of the judges. The other judges were: Professor Martin Fransman (University of Edinburgh) and Professor John Wilson (University of Central Lancashire). A strong short-list of entries for this years prize reflects the growing influence and vitality of business history within the managerial science and historical studies disciplines.
The winner in 2002 was Martin Fransman , Professor of Economics, Institute for Japanese-European Technology, University of Edinburgh, for his book Telecoms in the Internet Age. From Boom to Bust to...? ISBN 0 19 925700 0, publication date 22 August 2002.
Previous winners of the prize include Niall Ferguson's The World's Banker. The History of the House of Rothschild ; David Kynaston's The City of London: Illusions of Gold ; Geoffrey Jones's Merchants to Multinationals ; and Margaret Ackrill and Leslie Hanah's Barclays. The Business of Banking 1690-1990.
WADSWORTHPRIZE: WINNERS, 1978-2001
2001 MARGRET ACKRILL and LESLIE HANNAH, Barclays: the business of banking 1690-1966. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
2000 GEOFFREY JONES, Merchants to multinationals: British trading companies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
1999 DAVID KYNASTON, City ofLondon, volume 3: illusions of gold, 1914-45. (London: Chatto & Windus)
1998 NIALL FERGUSON, The worlds banker: the history of the house of Rothschild. (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
1997 YOUSEFF CASSIS, Big business: the European experience in the twentieth century. (Oxford; Oxford University Press)
1996 RICHARD SAVILLE, Bank ofScotland: a history 1695-1995. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)
1995 GEOFFREY TWEEDALE, Steel city: entrepreneurs of strategy and technology inSheffield1743-1993. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
1994 T. R. GOURVISH and R. G. WILSON, British brewing industry 1830-1980. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
1993 JOHN HATCHER, The history of the British coal industry. Volume 1. Before 1700: towards the age of coal. (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
1992 OLIVER WESTALL, The Provincial Insurance Company, 1903-1938: family markets and competitive growth. (Manchester: Manchester University Press)
1991 CHARLES HARVEY and JON PRESS, William Morris: design and enterprise in VictorianEngland. (Manchester: Manchester University Press)
1990 SIR PETER THOMPSON, Sharing the success: the story of NFC. (London: Collins)
1989 MARTIN CAMPBELL KELLY, ICL: a business and technical history. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
1988 CHRISTINE MACLEOD, Inventing the industrial revolution. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
1987 STEVEN TOLLIDAY, Business, banking and politics: the case of British Steel 1918-1939. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press)
1986 ROY CHURCH, The history of the British coal industry. Volume 3: Victorian preeminence. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
1985 RICHARD DAVENPORT-HINES, DudleyDocker. The life and times of a trade warrior. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
1984 MICHAEL W. FLINN, The history of the British coal industry. Volume 2. 1700-1830: the industrial revolution. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
1983 D. J. ROWE, Lead manufacturing inBritain: a history. (London, Croon Helm)
1982 R. W. FERRIER, The history of the British Petroleum Company. Volume 1: the developing years (1901-1932). (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
1981 CHARLES E. HARVEY, The Rio Tinto Company: an economic history of an leading international mining concern. (Penzance: Alison Hodge)
1980 D. C. COLEMAN, Courtaulds: an economic and social history. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
1979 PETER PAYNE, Colvilles and the Scottish steel industry. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
1978 D. K. FIELDHOUSE, Unilever overseas: the anatomy of a multinational. (London: Croon Helm)
(Listed by year of publication. The award is generally made the following year)