Mae Ngai
Mae Ngai won one of the most prestigious awards in the field of American history.
The Columbia University professor wrote “The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics,” which was published by W.W. Norton, and was praised by the jury as “an extraordinary book” that “brilliantly shows us how much of the white Anglo-American world came to view the Chinese as a racially unassimilable and threatening people.”
The Bancroft Prize, which includes an award of $10,000, was established in 1948 by the trustees of Columbia University, with a bequest from the historian Frederic Bancroft.
Books are evaluated for “the scope, significance, depth of research, and richness of interpretation.”