Jan Hennings received the ESSA Book Prize 2017 for his book "Russia and Courtly Europe: Ritual and the Culture of Diplomacy, 1648-1725" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
This is a highly accomplished and genuinely original work. It reinvigorates the study of diplomatic history by demonstrating how important it is for understanding the general course of Russian history. Hennings has read widely in a praiseworthy, interdisciplinary way, drawing extensively on recent anthropological work in particular. His major contribution is positioning the developing diplomatic relationship of Muscovy/Russia in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries within the wider context of recent work on courtly culture. The focus on precedent and hierarchy enables him quietly and effectively to demolish many of the assumptions behind general narratives—especially in International Relations—concerning the emergence of the modern European states system.