The Phi Beta Kappa Society Announces 2026 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award Recipient 

WASHINGTON, DC — April 8, 2026 — The Phi Beta Kappa Society has awarded the 2026 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award to America, América: A New History of the New World (Penguin Press), by historian Greg Grandin. 

Phi Beta Kappa presents the Emerson Award each year to a book of scholarly studies that contributes significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity. The Society will recognize this year’s winning work on April 16, 2026, during a special event held in partnership with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary. 

To mark this milestone, three of the nation’s oldest honorary societies will come together to celebrate excellence and explore how knowledge strengthens an informed, democratic society. 

From Penguin Press: “In this stunningly original reinterpretation of the New World, Grandin reveals how the United States and Latin America were forged from a constant, turbulent engagement with each other. America, América traverses half a millennium, from the Spanish Conquest—the greatest mortality event in human history—through the eighteenth-century wars for independence; the Monroe Doctrine; the world wars, coups, and revolutions of the twentieth century and beyond. 

Grandin’s book sheds new light on well-known historical figures such as Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolívar, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as lesser-known actors such as Jorge Gaitán, whose unsolved murder inaugurated the rise of cold war political terror. At once comprehensive and accessible, this monumental work of scholarship shows that centuries of bloodshed and diplomacy not only helped shape the political identities of the Western Hemisphere but also the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. 

A culmination of a decades-long engagement with hemispheric history, drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World. 

Drawing on a vast array of sources and decades of scholarship, Grandin brings new perspective to both well-known historical figures and overlooked actors. He reveals how hemispheric history continues to shape the present and reframes how we understand the origins and evolution of the modern world.” 

Greg Grandin is the Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale University.  He is the author of a number of prize-winning books, including The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. The End of the Myth won the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction and was a finalist for the prize in History. Other books include Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Making of an Imperial Republic, first published in 2005 and significantly revised and expanded in 2021, and Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman. He is also the author of The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World, which won the Bancroft Prize in American History. Released in early 2014, The Empire of Necessity narrates the history of a slave-ship revolt that inspired Herman Melville’s other masterpiece, a short story titled “Benito Cereno.”  Grandin’s Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History, as well as for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and picked by the New York Times, New Yorker, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and NPR for their “best of” lists, and Amazon.com named it the best history book of 2009.  Grandin is also the author of The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America During the Cold War and The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation, which won the Latin American Studies Association’s Bryce Wood Award for the best book published on Latin America in any discipline. With Gil Joseph, Grandin co-edited A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence During Latin America’s Long Cold War. A former consultant to the United Nations truth commission on Guatemala, Grandin is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written for various journals, including The Nation, Jacobin, The Boston Review, The Guardian, and The New York Times. 

“As we mark our 250th anniversary, we are proud to honor America, América, a work that exemplifies Phi Beta Kappa’s belief that the pursuit of knowledge can illuminate the past and shape a more informed future,” said Frederick M. Lawrence, Secretary and CEO of The Phi Beta Kappa Society. “This book reflects the very best of scholarship in the arts and sciences and reminds us that understanding our shared history can inspire thoughtful action in the world today.” 

The celebratory event on April 16th will be live-streamed and is open to the public. The program will also feature award presentations from partner organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Following the presentations, honorees will join a panel discussion exploring the question: What does cultivating useful knowledge look like in America today? 

The event will take place from 6:00–7:15 p.m. ET. Register to attend the virtual event at: https://www.amacad.org/events/awards-event-virtual 

For more information on Phi Beta Kappa’s awards and programs, visit www.pbk.org or contact the Development, Events, & Awards Department at awards@pbk.org.