2025 Bancroft Prize

Congratulations to Professor James Tejani for winning the 2025 Bancroft Prize for his extraordinary new book A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles—and America, published by W.W. Norton.

The Bancroft Prize, one of the most distinguished honors for scholars of American history, is awarded annually by the trustees of Columbia University to works that demonstrate outstanding “scope, significance, depth of research and richness of interpretation.” Dr. Tejani will receive the $10,000 prize at a ceremony in New York in April.

A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth tells the story of the creation of the port of Los Angeles and the transformation of the San Pedro Bay “from estuary into the nation’s global gateway… the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere.” Dr. Tejani’s deeply researched narrative spans centuries and draws on political, economic, indigenous, environmental, and global history. As the Bancroft jurors wrote: “By returning the attention of historians to infrastructure, material objects, and logistics, Tejani opens our eyes to a new way of thinking about the trans-Mississippi West.”

Dr. Tejani was previously the recipient of the Ray Allen Billington Prize of the Western History Association and the Doyce B. Nunis, Jr. Award of the Historical Society of Southern California. His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Huntington Foundation. He teaches courses on U.S. history, California history, and the history of the west.