Her book, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World, was named 2021 Book of the Year by The Leaflet (International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism). Linda Colley will receive the award at The University of Texas School of Law, during the Global Summit in Constitutionalism. She will also deliver the keynote lecture.

A work of extraordinary range and striking originality, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen traces the global history of written constitutions from the 1750s to the twentieth century, modifying accepted narratives and uncovering the close connections between the making of constitutions and the making of war. In the process, Linda Colley both reappraises famous constitutions and recovers those that have been marginalized but were central to the rise of a modern world.