A West Virginia University history professor has been awarded the prestigious Higby Prize by the Modern European History Section of the American Historical Association.

Matthew Vester, an associate professor of history in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, received the award for his article,The Political Autonomy of a Tax Farm: The Nice-Piedmont Gabelle of the Dukes of Savoy, 1535-1580.

His article was published in the Journal of Modern History, a scholarly journal considered to be the most important European history journal in the United States. The Higby Award is awarded to the best article in the journal within a two-year period.

When my article was accepted for publication, I was ecstatic merely to have it published there,Vester said.The fact that the prize committee judged it to be an important article is a tremendous honor, and it gives me enormous satisfaction to know that other scholars see this work as a key contribution to our understanding of the role of taxation in early modern political culture.

Vesters article argues that early modern fiscal institutions such as the Nice-Piedmont Gabelle (a tax on salt in France) need to be viewed not as narrowly-defined economic institutions, but rather as sites where the broader systems of political power and participation at the heart of early modern state formation are at work. The WVU professor examines these systems both at the level of aristocracies and central bureaucracies, as well as at the level ofordinary people.

He also discusses how his insights have larger consequences for how we plot the development of early modern capitalism and politics. Vesters arguments are supported by extensive archival research in France and Italy and by scholarly literature in at least four languages.

Vester received his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1997. His area of specialization is early modern Europe, and his research interests include comparative social and political culture in old regime France and Italy, Alpine history, local political geography and family history.

Vesters work has also been published in several other history journals.

For more information, e-mail Matt.Vester@mail.wvu.edu