Alison LaCroix, the Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law, has been awarded the 2025 SHEAR Book Prize for her work, The Interbellum Constitution: Union, Commerce, and Slavery in the Age of Federalisms.

The award, bestowed annually by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, recognizes "the book that makes the best primary scholarly contribution to the history of the early American republic."

LaCroix’s book, published last year by Yale University Press, delves into a critical but often overlooked period in American constitutional history—the years between 1815 and 1861. Despite the lack of amendments to the Constitution during these years, LaCroix reveals that this era, which she terms the “interbellum Constitution,” was a pivotal phase of transformation that helped redefine the nation.

The award was announced at SHEAR’s annual meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, July 17-20.