ISI has announced the winner of its Henry Paolucci/Walter Bagehot Book Award: Derek Beales, for his book Prosperity and Plunder: European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650-1815. Now I’ll be honest with you: I won’t be dipping into this tome over the weekend. But the folks at ISI do great work and promote great scholarship, so if Prosperity and Plunder even begins to spark your long-submerged interest in European Catholic monasteries, it’s worth checking out. And it probably would make a splendid Christmas gift for K Lo.