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Andrew Smith shortlisted for Gladstone Prize
23 May 2017
UCL History teaching fellow Andrew Smith has been shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society's Gladstone Prize for his first book, Terror and terroir: The winegrowers of the Languedoc and modern France (Manchester UP, 2016).
The Gladstone Prize
Six books were shortlisted for this year's prize, which is awarded annually to a book published in English by a researcher resident in Britain, working on any historical topic not related to British history. To be eligible for the prize, a work must be its author's first solely written book.
Terror and terroir
Published by Manchester University Press in 2016, Terror and terroir investigates the Comité Régional d'Action Viticole (CRAV), a loose affiliation of militant winegrowers in the southern vineyards of the Languedoc. Since 1961, they have fought to protect their livelihood, carrying out sabotage, bombings and hijackings in protests that have fed into Occitan and anti-globalisation movements.
At heart, however, the CRAV remain farmers championing the right of people to live and work the land. Between the romantic mythology of terroir, and the misguided, passionate violence of terror, this book unpicks the contentious issues of regionalism, protest and violence. It offers an insight into a neglected area of France's past that continues to impinge on its future, infused with one of the most potent symbols of French culture: wine.
Andrew W.M. Smith
Andrew Smith completed his PhD at Queen Mary, University of London in 2012 and has been a teaching fellow at UCL since 2013. He is secretary of the Society for the Study of French History and regularly appears on the radio and television to discuss French politics. He will leave the department this year to take up a permanent post at the University of Chichester.