Randall K. Wilson to be Awarded The New York Historical’s 2025 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History for A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park

Cover for A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park (Counterpoint, 2024)

Prize Includes $50,000 and Title of American Historian Laureate

Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang, chair of The New York Historical’s Board of Trustees, and Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of The New York Historical, announced today that Randall K. Wilson will be honored with The New York Historical’s annual Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History for A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park (Counterpoint, 2024). The award recognizes the best book of the year in the field of American history or biography. Randall Wilson will receive a $50,000 cash award, an engraved medal, and the title of American Historian Laureate. This honor will be presented at The New York Historical’s annual Chair’s Council Weekend with History on April 25.

“Randall Wilson’s remarkable book has redefined the concept of a biography. A Place Called Yellowstone is almost a Homeric hagiography, but of a primordial super volcano whose story began 2.1 million years ago in what is now America; yet, this book tells a more encompassing history about America than most biographies about Americans,” said Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang, chair of The New York Historical’s Board of Trustees. “Randall’s sweeping epic illustrates why Yellowstone became America’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site and how its tempestuous awesomeness has come to symbolize the fiery, beating heart of our evolving nation. The New York Historical has been a steward of America’s heritage for 221 years, it is incredibly fitting that we present this year’s Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History to Randall Wilson for A Place Called Yellowstone.”

“The New York Historical is one of our nation’s most venerable institutions, notable not only as a resource for preserving, exploring, and rethinking our past, but for charting a course for the future of American democracy,” said Randall K. Wilson. “I am truly honored to be associated with The New York Historical and to be included among the incredibly distinguished past recipients of the Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize.” 

A Place Called Yellowstone details the evolution of Yellowstone National Park from a remote and ”far-away” landscape into one of the most prominent and influential places in American history. Just as the National Mall in Washington, DC serves as a touchstone for public discussions of social and political matters, Yellowstone has done the same for questions about the natural world. Yellowstone marks the birthplace of the national parks, the first effort to restore endangered species, and the rise of a new industry based on nature tourism. Today, Yellowstone remains one of the few entities capable of bridging ideological divides in the United States. Yet, the park’s history is also filled with episodes of conflict and exclusion, setting precedents for Indigenous land dispossession, public-private land rights disputes, and prolonged tensions between commercialism and environmental conservation. Yellowstone’s legacies are both celebratory and problematic. Rigorously researched and packed with fast-paced adventure, this unique place-based biography tells the colorful story of Yellowstone as the story of the nation itself.

Randall K. Wilson is a professor of environmental studies at Gettysburg College, where he teaches courses on environmental history and policy, natural resource management, and the geography of the American West. His book, America’s Public Lands: From Yellowstone to Smokey Bear and Beyond, was named an Outstanding Academic Title of the Year from Choice Reviews and won the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize from the Association of American Geographers.

A Place Called Yellowstone was selected from a field of more than 150 submissions by a prize committee comprising historians and The Historical’s leadership. Previous winners of the Book Prize in American History include Jonathan Eig for King: A Life; Beverly Gage for G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century; Alan Taylor for American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850; Tracy Campbell for The Year of Peril: America in 1942; Rick Atkinson for The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777; Benn Steil for The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War; John A. Farrell for Richard Nixon: The Life; Jane Kamensky for Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley; Eric Foner for Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad; Jill Lepore for The Secret History of Wonder Woman; Doris Kearns Goodwin for Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln; David Nasaw for Andrew Carnegie; Daniel Walker Howe for What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848; Drew Gilpin Faust for This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War; Gordon S. Wood for Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815; Ron Chernow for George Washington: A Life; John Lewis Gaddis for George F. Kennan: An American Life; Robert Caro for Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power; and Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy for The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire.

About The New York Historical 
New York’s first museum, The New York Historical is a leading cultural institution covering over 400 years of American history. Our offerings span groundbreaking exhibitions; peerless collections of art, documents, and artifacts; acclaimed educational programs for teachers and students nationwide; and thought-provoking conversations among leading scholars, journalists, and thinkers about the past, present, and future of the American experiment. The New York Historical is a museum of museums and a collection of collections. We are home to the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, the Center for Women’s History, the DiMenna Children’s History Museum, and the future American LGBTQ+ Museum. We elevate the perspectives and scholarship that define the United States’ democratic heritage and challenge us all to shape our ongoing history for the better. Connect with us at nyhistory.org or at @nyhistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Tumblr.