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Our “From the Vault” posts allow you to take a peek into the history of the Press, where you can rediscover past authors, projects, editors, awards, and more that led to the development of the university publisher that the Press is today. This window into our past spotlights backlist or out-of-print titles and series and also recommends and contextualizes them with similar current and forthcoming titles. Explore the drawers of the Vault with our intern, Mikala Carpenter, as we uncover the hidden treasures that await us in the archives of the University of Michigan Press.

This is the first of two posts detailing recent award-winning titles from the UM Press.

The Anthropology and the Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association’s Julian Steward Award, for the best monograph in environmental/ecological anthropology, was awarded to J. Terrence McCabe’s Cattle Bring Us to Our Enemies in 2005.

The American Catholic Historical Association’s John Gilmary Shea Prize, for the most original and distinguished contribution to knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church, was awarded to Michael B. Gross’s War Against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany in 2004.

Toyin Falola’s A Mouth Sweeter than Salt was a honorable mention in 2005 for The African Studies Association’s Melville J. Herskovitz Award, for the most important scholarly work in African studies published in English.

Nancy Goldstein’s Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist was placed on the ALA Booklist Top 10 Arts Books of the Year and Booklist Top 10 Biographies of the Year in 2008.

The American Historical Association’s James Henry Breasted Prize, for the best book in any field of history prior to CE 100, was awarded to Callie Williamson’s Laws of the Roman People: Public Law in the Expansion and Decline of the Roman Empire in 2007.

The Association for Israel Studies Shapiro Best Book Award, for the best book in Israel Studies, was awarded to Gad Barzilai’s Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities in 2004.

The American Philosophical Society’s Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History, for a distinguished work in American or European cultural history, was awarded to Jacob Soll’s Publishing the Prince: History, Reading, and the Birth of Political Criticism in 2007.

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Deems Taylor Prize, for excellent works on the subject of music, was awarded to George Rochberg’s Aesthetics of Survival: A Composer’s View of Twentieth-Century Music in 2006.

The biennial Association of German Historians Hedwig Hintze Prize, for the best book in any historical field, was awarded to Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann’s Politics of Sociability: Freemasonry and German Civil Society, 1840-1918 in 2008.

The Association of Publishers and Booksellers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Best Publisher’s Achievement of the Year Award was awarded to Robert J. Donia’s Sarajevo: A Biography in 2007.

The American Society for Theatre Research Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History was awarded to Joseph R. Roach’s Player’s Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting in 2007.

The American Society for Theatre Research Errol Hill Award, for outstanding scholarship in African American theater, drama, and/or performance studies, was awarded to Harry J. Elam, Jr.’s The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson in 2005.

The Association for Theatre in Higher Education Outstanding Book Award, for works on theatre practice, pedagogy, arts, and performance, was awarded to Katrin Sieg’s Ethnic Drag: Performing Race, Nation, Sexuality in West Germany in 2003; Alicia Arrizon’s Queering Mestizaje: Transculturation and Performance in 2008; and Carrie Sandahl and Philip Auslander’s Bodies in Commotion: Disability and Performance in 2006.

The Association for Women in Slavic Studies Heldt Prize for the Best Book in Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian Women’s Studies was awarded to Shana Penn’s Solidarity’s Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland in 2005.

Sheila O’Connor’s Where No Gods Came was included on Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers List in 2003.

The Before Columbus American Book Award, for an outstanding contribution to American literature, was awarded to Lorenzo Thomas’s Don’t Deny My Name: Words and Music and the Black Intellectual Tradition in 2008.

The Classical Association of the Middle West and South Outstanding Publication Award, for a distinguished book by a CAMWS member, was awarded to Vanessa B. Gorman’s Miletos, the Ornament of Ionia: A History of the City to 400 B. C. E. in 2004.

The Choice Outstanding Academic Title has been awarded to multiple Press titles, including Xavante in Transition: Health, Ecology, and Bioanthropology in Central Brazil by Carlos E. A. Coimbra, Jr., Nancy M. Flowers, Francisco M. Salzano, and Ricardo V. Santos in 2003; Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work, and Globalization by Drucilla K. Barker and Susan F. Feinter in 2006; and Florin Curta’s East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages in 2007.

Sam Pickering’s Waltzing the Magpie: A Year in Australia was an honorable mention in the biography/memoir category in 2005 for the Connecticut Center for the Book Award, for lifetime achievement in service to the library community.

The West African Oral History Association’s E. J. Alagoa Prize was awarded to Toyin Falola’s A Mouth Sweeter than Salt in 2005.

R. Jay Magill Jr.’s Chic Ironic Bitterness was an honorable mention in the culture category in 2008 for the Eric Hoffer Award, which recognizes outstanding short prose and independent books.

The Florida Book Award for Nonfiction gold medal, for the best work by a Floridian author, was awarded to Cynthia Barnett’s Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U. S. in 2007.

The German Studies Association and German Academic Exchange Service Book Award, for an outstanding book on German language, literature, or culture, was awarded to Carol Poore’s Disability in Twentieth-Century German Culture in 2008. Ulrike Strasser’s State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic State was also a finalist in 2004.

The Historical Society of Michigan’s State History Award, for outstanding contributions to the appreciation and understanding of Michigan history, was awarded to Grant Brown Jr.’s Ninety Years Crossing Lake Michigan: The History of the Ann Arbor Car Ferries in 2008 in the university and commercial press publications category.

The Independent Publishers Book Awards was awarded to Eunmi Shim’s Lennie Tristano: His Life in Music in 2008 in the performing arts category.

The International Society of Anglo-Saxonists Best First Book Award, for an outstanding first book about the languages, literatures, arts, history, or material culture of Anglo-Saxon England, was awarded to Andrew P. Scheil’s Footsteps of Israel: Understanding Jews in Anglo-Saxon England in 2005.

Jeffrey S. McMillan’s Delightfulee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan was voted JazzTimes Readers’ Poll Best Book in the Industry in 2008.

New York University’s Joe A. Callaway Prize for the Best Book on Drama or Theater was awarded to Katrin Sieg’s Ethnic Drag: Performing Race, Nation, Sexuality in West Germany in 2004. Mike Sell’s Avant-Garde Performance and the Limits of Criticism: Approaching the Living Theater, Happenings/Fluxus, and the Black Arts Movement was an honorable mention for the same award in 2006.

The Medieval Academy of America’s John Nicholas Brown Prize, for a first book or monograph on a medieval subject of outstanding quality, was awarded to Andrew P. Scheil’s Footsteps of Israel: Understanding Jews in Anglo-Saxon England in 2008.

Peter Zinoman’s Dumb Luck: A Novel by Vu Trong Phung was named a Los Angeles Times’ Sunday Book Review Best Book selection in 2003.

The Library of Michigan’s Michigan Notable Book Award has been awarded to multiple Press titles since 2003, including Lawrence L. Rouch The Vernor’s Story: From Gnomes to Now; Bill Dunlop and Marcia Fountain-Blacklidge’s The Indians of Hungry Hollow in 2005; Thomas J. Noer’s Soapy: A Biography of G. Mennen Williams in 2006; and Keewaydinoquay Peschel’s Keewaydinoquay, Stories from My Youth in 2007.

The Minnesota Book Award, for an outstanding work by a Minnesotan, was awarded to Sheila O’Connor’s Where No Gods Came in 2004 in the novel and short story category.

The Modern Language Association’s Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize has been awarded to two Press titles in two separate categories. The Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies was awarded to Evelyne Ender’s Architexts of Memory: Literary, Science, and Autobiography in 2006. The Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Germanic Languages and Literatures was awarded to Carol Poore’s Disability in Twentieth-Century German Culture in 2008.

The Modern Language Association’s Prize in United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies was awarded to Alicia Arrizón’s Queering Mestizaje: Transculturation and Performance in 2006.

The National Arbor Day Foundation’s Media Award was awarded to Diana Beresford-Kroeger’s Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest in 2005.

William Pencak’s Jews and Gentiles in Early America: 1654-1800 was an honorable mention in 2006 for the Jewish Book council’s National Jewish Book Award in the American Jewish history category.

The National Communication Association’s Lilla A. Heston Award, for outstanding scholarship in interpretation and performance studies, was awarded to Jacqueline Taylor’s Waiting for the Call: From Preacher’s Daughter to Lesbian Mom in 2007.

The National Conference of Black Political Scientists W. E. B. DuBois Distinguished Book Award was awarded to Tasha S. Philpot’s Race, Republicans, and the Return of the Party of Lincoln in 2008.

The Society for American Baseball Research Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal was awarded to Peter Morris’s Baseball Fever: Early Baseball in Michigan in 2004.

Ulrike Strasser’s State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic State was named co-winner of the Society of Early Modern Women Book Award for the best book relating to early modern women in 2005.

Nancy Goldstein’ Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist was named a Village Voice Best Books List selection in 2008.

The International Association for the Study of Popular Music Woody Guthrie award, for an outstanding book on popular music, was awarded to Steven F. Pond’s Head Hunters: The Making of Jazz’s First Platinum Album in 2006.

The Association of Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence was awarded to Eddy Determeyer’s Rhythm is Our Business: Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem Express in 2007 and Eunmi Shim’s Lennie Tristano: His Life in Music in 2008. The ARSC Certificate of Merit was also awarded to Jeffrey S. McMillan’s Delightfulee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan in 2009 and Frank Buchmann-Moller’s Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster in 2007.