2011 awards and prizes

Recipients of the Society's awards, prizes and grants presented in 2011.

Samuel Eliot Morison Prize

For a body of contributions to military history over a career.

Distinguished Book Awards

The best book-length publications in English on military history, in four categories.

  • Chad L. Williams

    Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era

  • Peter H. Wilson

    The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy

  • John MacFarlane

    Triquet’s Cross: A Study of Military Heroism

  • Clifford J. Rogers, ed.

    The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology

The Vandervort Prizes

Outstanding journal articles in military history, in the Journal and beyond it.

Edward M. Coffman First Manuscript Prize

The best dissertation in military history, defended in the previous calendar year.

  • Kathryn S. Meier, University of Scranton

    The Seasoned Soldier: Coping with the Environment in Civil War Virginia

    Drawing on a wide array of official and personal accounts, “A Seasoned Soldier” examines the ways in which Union and Confederate soldiers understood and practiced self-care during the Peninsular and Shenandoah campaigns of 1862. Notwithstanding seminal efforts by the U.S. Sanitary Commission to improve soldiers’ living conditions, military medicine on both sides remained rudimentary and principally concerned with rooting out malingerers. Consequently, principal responsibility for maintaining physical and mental health—as well as combat effectiveness—devolved to the soldiers themselves. Over time, they acquired the skills required to look after their bodies and stave off melancholy, rendering themselves “seasoned soldiers.” Their respective armies depended on such men, even if they did not always understand or approve of their methods. What officers interpreted as desertion or straggling, the men often considered essential sojourns—necessary to mend bodies, augment diets, or restore nerves. Innovatively combining military, medical, and environmental history, “A Seasoned Soldier” sheds new light on two of the most storied campaigns of the Civil War and points the way for future scholarship in the field.

  • FinalistWaitman Beorn, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

    Descent into Darkness: Local Participation of the Wehrmacht in the Holocaust in Belarus, 1941-2

  • FinalistKatherine Epstein, The Ohio State University

    Inventing the Military-Industrial Complex: Torpedo Development, Property Rights, and Naval Warfare in the United States and Great Britain before World War I

    In the Journal: Katherine C. Epstein

Russell F. Weigley Graduate Student Travel Grants

Travel support for graduate students presenting at the annual meeting.

  • Daniel Bessner, Duke University

  • Martin Clemis, Temple University

    In the Journal: Martin G. Clemis

  • Kimberly Lamay, University at Albany, State University of New York

  • Paul Ramsey, University of Calgary

  • Lon Strauss, University of Kansas

  • Corbin Williamson, Texas Tech University

ABC-CLIO Research Grants

Research funding for advanced graduate students and early-career historians without a doctorate.

  • Justin Barr, Yale University

  • Robyn Rodriguez, The Ohio State University

Edwin H. Simmons Award

For long, distinguished or particularly outstanding service to the Society.

George C. Marshall Lecture in Military History

An annual lecture at the American Historical Association meeting, printed in the Journal.