September 8, 2025, 7:15pm

Today, the British Academy announced the 2025 shortlist for the British Academy Book Prize, which awards £25,000 annually to a work of nonfiction, and seeks to recognize books “based on exceptional research and written for the general reader, that deepen our understanding of people, societies and cultures and their interactions across time and place.”

“From over 230 entries our panel identified six for our shortlist,” said Chair of judges Rebecca Earle in a statement.

They cover topics from the West’s persistent misunderstanding of African economies, to the archaeology of our musical past. They consider the ‘golden road’ that spread Indian religious and mathematical practices across China, Southeast Asia and beyond, and the Russian Orthodox Church’s complicated relationship with the region’s political rulers over the past millennium. They demonstrate the central role of the environment in creating the modern world, and reveal the forces that condemn women around the globe to poor health, while also offering practical actions readers can take to address this. Together they offer an acute diagnosis of how we got to where we are. They also remind us of the importance of culture to our lives and the lives of people in previous centuries. Each one of these well-written and well-researched books is a tribute to the importance of the humanities and social sciences in understanding our world.

The winner will be announced on October 22; in the meantime, here’s the shortlist:

Sunil Amrith, The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years

Lucy Ash, The Baton and The Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin

William Dalrymple, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World

Bronwen Everill, Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance

Sophie Harman, Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health

Graeme Lawson, Sound Tracks: A Musical Detective Story