By james art The award, which recognizes the best non-fiction work that contributes to a global understanding of world culture, went to Ross Perlin’s Language City: The Fight to Save Endangered Mother Languages, with its author taking home a £25,000 prize.
Perlin’s book beat out the rest of the six-book shortlist, which included Material World: A Substantial Story Of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway and Smoke And Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh.
The rest of the shortlist was made up of Tame And The Wild: People And Animals After 1492 by Marcy Norton, Divided: Racism, Medicine And Why We Need To Decolonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo and The Secret Lives Of Numbers: A Global History Of Mathematics and her unsung pioneers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell.
Each selected author will also pick up a £1,000 prize.
The winning book sees Perlin write about the history of migration in New York, the world’s most linguistically diverse city with more than 700 languages spoken, and a profile of six speakers of endangered languages.
Speaking on behalf of the judges, Professor Charles Tripp said: “Language City is a fascinating, compelling social history and contemporary linguistic account of New York.
“It offers readers a unique perspective on the city that reveals both the precariousness and resilience of migrants and their rich and diverse languages as they strive to adapt their native language to 21st-century urban life.”
“At a time when many of the world’s languages are disappearing, Ross Perlin celebrates the subtleties of linguistic diversity by treating each with sensitivity and humanity.”
Pearlin, who is from New York, is also the author of Intern Nation: How To Earn Nothing And Learn Little In the Brave New Economy about unpaid work and the youth economy.
He has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s, and the literary magazine n+1, and was a New Arizona contributor to New America.
Nandini Das won the 2023 prize for The Courtship of India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire.
The British Academy Book Award for Global Cultural Understanding has been awarded since 2013.