Citation for 1994 Dissertation Prize: John Carson, "Talents, Intelligence, and the Construction of Human Difference in France and America, 1750-1920," Ph.D. Princeton University, 1994. [This dissertation has been published as John Carson, The Measure of Merit: Talents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French and American Republics, 1750-1940 (Princeton University Press, 2006)]

The Forum awarded its first Prize for the best dissertation in the history of human sciences to John Carson, for his thesis Talents, Intelligence, and the Constructions of Human Difference in France and America, 1750-1920 (Department of History, Princeton University, 1994). There were three entries, all of which were of high quality. The decision was difficult, but the committee consisting of Ellen Herman, Richard von Mayrhauser, Paul Jerome Croce, and Mitchell Ash was able to reach a unanimous decision.

Paul Croce, commenting on the decision, wrote that "Carson’s work shows an unusual breadth of knowledge and interpretation: as a cross-cultural analysis, it is conversant with both French and United States history; in its broad coverage, it spanned the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries; and in its facility across disciplinary boundaries, it effectively integrated history of science and cultural history."