he Institute co-sponsors annual prizes for the best essays in American history submitted to The Concord Review, the only journal to publish exemplary historical writing by high school students. Judges each year include a history professor, a master high school teacher, and a member of the GLI education staff. In 2006, the judges were: Andrew Robertson, a professor of history at Lehman College, CUNY, and Colgate University (Hamilton, NY); Kathleen Kean of Nicolet High School (Glendale, WI), winner of the 2004 History Teacher of the Year Award; Anthony Napoli, Education Coordinator, Gilder Lehrman Institute.



First Prize ($5,000)
David Gurian-Peck (Hunter College High School, New York, NY)
"John Marshall Harlan: ‘The Great Dissenter’"
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Second Prize ($3,000)
Cullen MacBeth (St. Albans School, Washington, DC)
"Benjamin Wade"
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Third Prize ($1,000)
Veda Shastri (Lexington High School, Lexington, MS)
"Cultural Encounter through Trade: Salem and India"
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Honorable Mention
Kaitlin Bergan (Northern Highlands Regional High School, Allendale, NJ)
"America and the Invisible Hand: The Influence of Adam Smith on the American Economy"

Rachael Dean (Pulaski Academy, Little Rock, AR)
"John Adams: A Moral Education"

Xianlin Li (North Carolina School of Science and Math, Cary, NC)
"The Great Debate: Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois"

Sally Pei (Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH)
"From Ambivalence to Acceptance: American Attitudes towards Linguistic and National Identity"

Craig Schindewolf (Egg Harbor Township High School, Egg Harbor Township, NJ)
"Causes of the War of 1812"

Steven Siegel (Richard Montgomery High School, Potomac, MD)
"British Foreign Policy during the American Civil War: January 1860 to September 1862"

Zeno Yeates (Isidore Newman School, New Orleans, LA)
"Influences of the Railroad on American Economic Growth"