Robert Yee Awarded the Economic History Society’s 2026 Book Prize

Robert Yee, a postdoctoral associate and lecturer in the Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics, has been awarded the Economic History Society’s book prize for his publication, The City’s Defense: The Bank of England and the Remaking of Economic Governance, 1914–1939 (Cambridge University Press, 2025). The prize recognizes the “best first monograph in economic and/or social history” published in the preceding two years.

 

In The City’s Defense, Yee explores the intersection of finance and geopolitics after the First World War. He focuses on the role of the Bank of England in preserving the City of London’s status as an international financial center. In response to mass unemployment and volatile exchange rates, the Bank expanded its reach into areas beyond the traditional scope of central banking, including industrial policy and foreign affairs. Drawing on primary sources from 50 archives across 15 countries, the book offers a new account of global economic governance in the twentieth century.

 

Yee is a faculty affiliate at the MacMillan Center’s European Studies Council.