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University of Maryland professor Marjoleine Kars received the Cundill History Prize for Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast.Jasmine Nelson/The Canadian Press

University of Maryland professor Marjoleine Kars has won the US$75,000 Cundill History Prize.

Kars received the honour on Thursday for “Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast,” published by the New Press.

Raised in the Netherlands and based in Washington, D.C., Kars is noted for her work on the history of slavery.

In a news release, jury chair Michael Ignatieff praised the book as “superbly researched and narrated.”

The international Cundill prize, which is run by McGill University, recognizes non-fiction history writing in English.

This year’s runners-up, who each receive US$10,000, were U.K.-based Canadian scholar Rebecca Clifford for “Survivors: Children’s Lives after the Holocaust,” from Yale University Press, and Paris Nanterre University professor Marie Favereau for “The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World,” published by Belknap Press.

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