The Books | The Jurors | About the Prize | Contact Information
Ezra F. Vogel Wins the 2012
Lionel Gelber Prize for His Book
Deng Xiaoping and the
Transformation of China
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel, published by Belknap Press/Harvard University Press
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For Immediate Release: February 27, 2012 (Toronto and Washington) Sara Charney, chair of the Lionel Gelber Prize Board and niece of Lionel Gelber, announced today that Ezra F. Vogel has won the 2012 Prize for Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China was named the winner by a five-person jury and selected from their previously-announced shortlist.
“The rise of China as a mighty global economic power, which now seems so inexorable, was never foreordained,” said George Russell, the jury chair.
“That it happened, and how it happened, depended enormously on the wiles, stratagems and vision of the short, pugnacious man who is the subject of this deeply informed book by one of the West’s most important Asia scholars.
“Ezra Vogel’s sympathetic and balanced chronicle of the Long March of Deng Xiaoping as he led China toward a central place on the modern world stage makes impressive use of the author’s unparalleled contacts in China’s inner circles. It is going to be required reading for many years to come.”Free Public Lecture: Ezra F. Vogel will receive his award and deliver the annual Lionel Gelber Prize free public lecture on Thursday, March 15, 2012, at The Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto, Canada.
About the Lionel Gelber Prize: The Lionel Gelber Prize is a literary award for the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues. It was founded in 1989 in the memory of Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber (1907 – 1989). A prize of $15,000 is awarded to the winner. The award is presented annually by the Lionel Gelber Foundation, in partnership with Foreign Policy Magazine and the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.
About the Members of the Jury:
George Russell, Jury Chair, is the executive editor of Fox News, the U.S. cable news network. He was formerly the president and editor of Time magazine in Canada. He is the co-author of Eyewitness: 150 Years of Photo-journalism.
Gaynor Lilian Johnson Ph. D, is currently Reader in International History and Member of the University of Salford’s European Security Research Centre. A specialist in the history of the British Foreign Office, she is a member of the editorial board of Diplomacy and Statecraft and book reviews editor of The International History Review.
Daniel Paul Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. His column, “Wonder Land,” appears in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com each Thursday. Mr. Henninger shared in The Wall Street Journal's 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing in 1996 and 1987 and won the Gerald Loeb Award for commentary in 1985.
Russell Roberts is a professor of economics at George Mason University and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written three novels that teach economic ideas for people who are not economists, including The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity. He has also collaborated on two rap videos starring John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek to teach economics to high school and college students, and hosts the award-winning weekly podcast EconTalk.
William Thorsell is currently Associate Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto, and Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. After more than 10 years as editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail in Toronto, Mr. Thorsell was appointed Director and CEO of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in August, 2000. He was invested into the Order of Ontario in January 2008 and also invested as Chevalier, Order of Arts and Letters, in France in 2010.
The following books were shortlisted for the 2012 Lionel Gelber Prize:
- Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Frederick Kempe, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons/Amy Einhorn Books
- Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
- George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis, published by The Penguin Press
- On China by Henry Kissinger, published by Allen Lane Canada and The Penguin Press
- A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman, published by Random House.
The following books were longlisted for the 2012 Lionel Gelber Prize:
- Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Frederick Kempe, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons/Amy Einhorn Books
- Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson, published by The Penguin Press
- Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel, published by Harvard University Press
- George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis, published by The Penguin Press
- Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty by Mustafa Akyol, published by W. W. Norton & Company
- On China by Henry Kissinger, published by Allen Lane Canada and The Penguin Press
- The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- The Russian Origins of the First World War by Sean McMeekin, published by Harvard University Press
- The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures Of Great Powers by Peter Tomsen, published by Perseus Books Group
- A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman, published by Random House.
Author Interviews Online:
Robert Steiner, director of the Fellowships in Global Journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, has interviewed Ezra F. Vogel about his book, along with all the other longlisted authors. Click here to access those conversations or find them at iTunes, listed under Podcasts.
Media Contact Information:
To book an interview with Ezra F. Vogel regarding his 2012 Lionel Gelber Prize please contact:
- June Dickenson: (647) 477-6000 / junedickenson@cogeco.ca
- Elana Rabinovitch: (416) 275-5418 / elana@propagandaink.ca
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