Shaking Edifices

Has anyone noticed how women are driving so much innovation in the writing of history these days? For five years in succession, a woman has won the Cundill History Prize, awarded annually by an international jury of scholars gathered by McGill University to honour “the best history writing in English.”

These five women deserve their honours. There has been a lot of good historical writing by men, as well as by women, among the recent Cundill short lists and finalists. But the winning books are changing what’s long been the standard historical voice. Their authors display a distinct pleasure in the craft and a willingness to share personal engagement with their subject matter. The edifice of impersonal scholarship and objective history is shaking.

Perhaps male scholars feel more constrained by the gravity and authority sometimes associated with the profession of history. At least some women, no less scholarly, seem more willing to play with form. That’s...