The finalists for this year’s Cundill Prize in Historical Literature – the world’s richest award for an English-language work of historical non-fiction, offering a $75,000 U.S. purse – have been announced.

The three finalists, culled from a shortlist revealed last month, are as follows:

• Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (Knopf)
• Susan Pedersen, The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire (Oxford University Press)
• Bettina Stangneth, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer (Bodley Head)

The winner will be recognized at a ceremony hosted by author Charlotte Gray at Toronto’s Shangri-La Hotel on Nov. 2. The two runners-up will each receive $10,000 U.S.