The Bell Award, established in 1992, is given for the best book on Georgia history published in the previous year. The award is named in honor of Malcolm Bell, Jr., and Muriel Barrow Bell in recognition of their contributions to the recording of Georgia's history.

Nomination Information:

Awards are announced early in the year, books submitted should be published between January 1 and December 31 of the previous calendar year. The deadline for submission is January 15. Four copies of the nominated books should be sent to the Georgia Historical Society at the address below. Nominated books cannot be returned. Only the winner will be notified in advance of the presentation of the award.  

Nominations should include a cover page with the following information:

• title of book

• contact name, address, phone number, fax number, and email

• date of publication

Please submit 4 copies of each book to:

Bell Award

The Georgia Historical Society

501 Whitaker Street

Savannah, GA 31401

Previous Winners:

2011: African-American Life in the Georgia Lowcountry: The Atlantic World and the Gullah Geechee, edited by Philip Morgan, published by the University of Georgia Press

2010: What Virtue There is in Fire: Cultural Memory and the Lynching of Sam Hose, by Dr. Edwin Arnold, published by the University of Georgia Press 

2009: Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War, by Jacqueline Jones, published by Alfred A. Knopf

2008: Georgia's Frontier Women: Female Fortunes in a Southern Colony, by Ben Marsh, published by University of Georgia Press

2007: White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism, by Kevin Kruse, published by Princeton University Press

2006: Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic, by Erskine Clarke, published by Yale University Press

2005: Okfuskee: A Creek Indian Town in Colonial America, by Joshua Piker, published by Harvard University Press

2004: And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank, by Steve Oney, published by Pantheon Books

2003: Highbrows, Hillbillies, and Hellfire: Public Entertainment in Atlanta, 1880-1930, by Steve Goodson, published by University of Georgia Press

2002: Beyond Atlanta: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Georgia, 1940-1980,  by Stephen G.N. Tuck, published by University of Georgia Press

2001: Free Labor in an Unfree World: White Artisans in Slaveholding Georgia, 1789-1860, by Michele Gillespie, published by University of Georgia Press

2000: Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta, by Thomas G. Dyer, published by Johns Hopkins University Press

1998-1999: Under the Guardianship of the Nation: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Reconstruction of Georgia, 1865-1870, by Paul Cimbala, published by University of Georgia Press

1996-1997: Co-winners: The Temple Bombing, by Melissa Fay Green, published by Addison-Wesley, and "What Nature Suffers to Groe": Life, Labor, and Landscape on the Georgia Coast, 1680-1920, by Mart Stewart, published by University of Georgia Press

1994-1995: Andersonville: The Last Depot, by William Marvel, published by University of North Carolina Press

1992-1993: Lachlan McGillivary, Indian Trader: The Shaping of the Southern Colonial Frontier, by Edward J. Cashin, published by University of Georgia Press