Peace History Society

Mona Siegel with a copy of her book Peace on Our Terms

Elise M. Boulding Prize in Peace History

The Peace History Society awards the Elise M. Boulding Prize biannually for an outstanding English-language nonfiction book by a single author that has a substantial bearing on the field of peace history. First books and dissertations are not eligible.

The winner for 2019-20 is Mona Siegel, Peace on Our Terms: The Global Battle for Women’s Rights After the First World War (Columbia University Press, 20202).

Siegel’s book, Peace on Our Terms, follows dozens of remarkable women from Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia as they crossed oceans and continents; commanded meeting halls in Paris, Zurich, and Washington; marched in the streets of Cairo and Beijing; and lobbied global leaders to recognize gender equality as a precondition to peace at the end of the First World War. This sweeping global account of international organizing highlights how Egyptian and Chinese nationalists, Western and Japanese labor feminists, white Western suffragists, and African American civil rights advocates worked in tandem to advance women’s rights. Despite significant resistance, these pathbreaking women left their mark on emerging democratic constitutions and new institutions of global governance. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Peace on Our Terms is the first book to demonstrate the centrality of women’s activism to the Paris Peace Conference and the critical diplomatic events of 1919.