Book prize for Talitha Ilaqua

The prize committee wrote about Talitha Ilacqua's book Inventing the Modern Region: Basque Identity and the French Nation-State:

"This book stands out as an authoritative and wide-ranging study of a key dynamic of modern French history, the relationship between the central state and the regions. It presents a clear argument from the outset about the invention of the French Basque region as a modern cultural construct in which, contrary to later, teleological separatist narratives, local Basque cultures were envisaged as existing within France. One of the book’s strengths lies in its ability to show that this is both and French and a Basque history by highlighting the constant negotiation between different understandings of French and Basque identities and the evolving yet always interconnected relationship between them. The judges were particularly impressed with the long-term chronology of the study, which includes discussion of the ancien régime, the Revolution, and the many regimes that followed; the combination of political and cultural approaches that develops to the full the potential of a cultural history approach to language and travel as markers of identity, as well as the significance of hard-nosed political negotiations; and the ability of the book to situate France in a European context, especially in its relations with Spain. The book is a must-read for historians of modern France and its regions and will make a major contribution to the field."