Distinguished Book Awards
The best book-length publications in English on military history, in four categories.
$1,000 per bookClosed for 2027136 recipients
About the prize
The Distinguished Book Awards recognize the best book-length publications in English on military history, whether monograph, bibliography, guide, or other project copyrighted in the previous calendar years. The awards are presented at the Society’s annual meeting the spring following the competition, and the author of each prize-winning book receives a $1,000 prize.
Books are considered in four categories:
- Distinguished Book: two awards for the best books overall, regardless of geographical focus.
- Edited and Reference Book: works containing collections of information, such as anthologies, diaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, handbooks, and diagnostic manuals.
- Biography and Memoirs: works that examine the life of a single individual or the lives of multiple individuals, or first-person accounts of lived experiences in the context of war and the military.
- First Book: works that represent a single author’s first monograph.
Eligibility
Books published in the two calendar years before the award year are eligible: for the 2027 awards, books with a copyright date of 2025 or 2026. Works previously nominated for the Society’s book awards may be resubmitted provided they were first published no earlier than 2025.
Nominations are made by publishers. Books must be submitted in physical copy; electronic versions are not considered.
How to nominate
The 2027 competition closed on October 1, 2026. The next call will be posted here.
Decisions by January 30, 2027. Presented at the 2027 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, March 11 to 14.
Nomination formEmail the committee chair
Marion (Molly) Girard Dorsey, Chair, SMH Book Awards Committee · marion.girard.dorsey@unh.edu
For each book to be considered, the publisher must:
- Complete the nomination form, assigning the book to one of the four categories.
- Send a copy of the book to each member of the Book Awards Committee at the addresses listed below.
Books are not returned, and only award winners are notified of selection. The Committee recognizes the expense to authors and publishers of submitting five copies of each nominated book and therefore encourages serious submissions only. At the discretion of the Committee, submissions received after the deadline may be deferred for consideration in the following year’s awards.
Committee details for 2027
Books must be postmarked by October 1, 2026, and one copy sent to each committee member:
Marion Dorsey, PhD 14 Fogg Drive Durham, NH 03824
Ian Beckett, PhD School of History Tides, Trewelloe Road, Praa Sands, Penzance Cornwall, TR20 9SU, UK
Tarak Barkawi, PhD 1102 Bryn Mawr Road Baltimore, MD 21210
Ricardo A. Herrera, PhD 50 W. High St., Apt. 206 Carlisle, PA 17013
Matthew Neufeld Room 619, Arts Building University of Saskatchewan 9 Campus Drive Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5 Canada
Recipients
Awarded since 1987. The categories have changed over time: before 2021 the awards were given by subject area (American, non-American, first book, trade press, biography, reference), and earlier still without categories.
2026
DistinguishedJohn M. Kinder
World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict in the Modern Age · University of Chicago Press, 2025
DistinguishedAndrew Preston
Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security · Harvard University Press, 2025
First BookLauren Duval
The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence · Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture & University of North Carolina Press, 2025
Biography and MemoirsHanna Diamond
Josephine Baker’s Secret War · New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025
Edited and ReferenceIan Ona Johnson & Robert Clemm
A Violent Peace: A Global Military History of the Interwar Period · University Press of Kansas, 2025
In the Journal: Robert H. Clemm
2025
Edited and ReferencePedro Luengo & Gene Allen Smith
A Fortified Sea: The Defense of the Caribbean in the Eighteenth Century · University of Alabama Press, 2024
In the Journal: Gene A. Smith
Biography and MemoirsKenneth M. Swope
Struggle for Empire: The Battles of General Zuo Zongtang · Naval Institute Press, 2024
First BookJ. Matthew Ward
Garden of Ruins: Occupied Louisiana in the Civil War · LSU Press, 2024
DistinguishedWayne E. Lee
The Cutting-off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500-1800 · University of North Carolina Press, 2023
DistinguishedDouglas Porch
Resistance and Liberation: France at War, 1942-1945 · Cambridge University Press, 2024
2024
American Military HistoryBeth Bailey
An Army Afire: How the US Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era · Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023
Non-American Military HistoryRory Cox
Origins of the Just War: Military Ethics and Culture in the Ancient Near East · Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023
First BookRebecca Schwartz Greene
Breaking Point: The Ironic Evolution of Psychiatry in World War II · New York: Fordham University Press, 2023
Biography and MemoirLyle Jeremy Rubin
Pain is Weakness: A Marine’s Unbecoming · New York: Bold Type Books, 2022
Trade PressRachel Chrastil
Bismarck’s War: The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe · New York: Basic Books, 2023
2023
U.S.Carter Malkasian
The American War in Afghanistan: A History · New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021
Non-U.S.Douglas Porch
Defeat and Division: France at War, 1939-1942 · Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022
First BookLuke Reynolds
Who Owned Waterloo?: Battle, Memory, & Myth in British History, 1815-1852 · Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022
Trade PressRichard Overy
Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 · New York, NY: Viking, 2022
Biography and MemoirAlexander Mikaberidze
Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace · New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2022
ReferenceJonathan Abel [Translated and Annotated]
Guibert’s General Essay on Tactics · Leiden: Brill, 2022
2022
U.S.Thomas A. Guglielmo
Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military · Oxford University Press
Non-U.S.Wendy Goldman & Donald Filtzer
Fortress Dark and Stern: The Soviet Home Front during World War II · Oxford University Press
First BookIan Ona Johnson
Faustian Bargain: The Soviet-German Partnership and the Origins of the Second World War · Oxford University Press
Trade PressMichael Nieberg
When France Fell: The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Alliance · Harvard University Press
Biography and MemoirRuth Scurr
Napoleon, A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows · Penguin Random House
ReferenceKaren Hagemann, Stefan Dudink, Sonya O. Rose, eds.
Oxford Handbook of Gender, War and the Western World Since 1600 · Oxford University Press
2021
U.S.Donald F. Johnson
Occupied America: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution · University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021
Non-U.S.Alexander Mikaberidze
The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History · Oxford University Press, 2020
Biography and MemoirDaniel Whittingham
Charles E. Callwell and the British Way in Warfare · Cambridge University Press, 2021
ReferenceAaron Sheehan-Dean, ed.
The Cambridge History of the American Civil War · Cambridge University Press, 2019
First BookMeighen McCrae
Coalition Strategy and the End of the First World War · Cambridge University Press, 2019
Trade PressAlexander Watson
The Fortress: The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe’s Bloodlands · Basic Books, 2020
2020
Monica Kim, NYU
The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: The Untold History · Princeton University Press, 2019
Geoffrey Robinson, UCLA
The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66 · Princeton University Press, 2018
Stephen Brumwell
Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty · Yale University Press, 2018
Kelly DeVries and Michael Livingston, eds., Loyola University; The Citadel
Medieval Warfare: A Reader · University of Toronto Press, 2019
Thomas Dodman, Columbia University
What Nostalgia Was: War, Empire, and the Time of a Deadly Emotion · University of Chicago Press, 2019
2019
A Campaign of Giants--The Battle for Petersburg: Volume 1: From the Crossing of the James to the Crater · Civil War America series, UNC Press, 2018
The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War · Harvard University Press, 2018
Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia
Bernardo de Gálvez: Spanish Hero of the American Revolution · UNC Press, 2018
Richard P. Tucker, Tait Keller, J.R. McNeill, and Martin Schmid, eds
Environmental Histories of the First World War · Cambridge University Press, 2018
2018
The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border · New York: Oxford University Press, 2016
Motivation in War: The Experience of Common Soldiers in Old-Regime Europe · Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017
Steven L. Ossad
Omar Nelson Bradley: America’s GI General · Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2017
Paul R. Bartrop and Michael Dickerman
The Holocaust (4 vols.): An Encyclopedia and Document Collection · Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2017
2017
Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone
Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle · Campaign and Commanders Series, No. 54. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016
Tonio Andrade
The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History · Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016
Laila Parsons
The Commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence, 1914-1948 · New York: Hill and Wang, 2016
Michael Livingston and Kelly DeVries, eds.
The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook · Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015
2010s · 27 awards
2016
David Preston
Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of Monongahela and the Road to Revolution
Pierre Razoux
The Iran-Iraq War
Paul Robinson
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich: Supreme Commander of the Russian Army
David T. Zabecki, editor
Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History
2015
Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire
In the Journal: Andrew O’Shaughnessy
Alexander Watson
Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I
Blucher: Scourge of Napoleon
2014
Samuel J. Watson
Jackson’s Sword: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1810-1821, and Peacekeepers and Conquerors: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1821-1846
In the Journal: Samuel Watson
Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century
The Young Ataturk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey
Spencer Tucker, editor
American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection
In the Journal: Spencer C. Tucker
2013
School of Hard Knocks: Combat Leadership in the American Expeditionary Forces
The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943
Geoffrey Roberts
Stalin’s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov
Clayton R. Newell and Charles R. Shrader
Of Duty Well and Faithfully Done: A History of the Regular Army in the Civil War
2012
John Sloan Brown
Kevlar Legions: The Transformation of the U.S. Army, 1989-2005
Mark Peattie, Edward Drea, and Hans van de Ven (eds.)
The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945
In the Journal: Edward J. Drea
Mungo Melvin
Manstein: Hitler's Greatest General
Steven E. Clay
US Army Order of Battle 1919-1941 · 4 vols.
2011
Chad L. Williams
Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era
The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy
Triquet’s Cross: A Study of Military Heroism
Clifford J. Rogers, ed.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology
2010
A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War
Japan’s Imperial Army: Its Rise and Fall, 1853-1945
J.P. Harris
Douglas Haig and the First World War
In the Journal: J. P. Harris
Spencer C. Tucker, ed.
The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars
2000s · 35 awards
2009
The Cold War U.S. Army: Building Deterrence for Limited War
Vauban Under Siege: Engineering Efficiency and Martial Vigor in the War of the Spanish Succession
Andy Wiest
Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN
Philip Sabin, Hans van Wees, and Michael Whitby, ed.
The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
In the Journal: Michael J. Whitby
2008
Jon Latimer
1812: War with America
War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895-1898
Martha Hannah
Your Death Would Be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War
Spencer C. Tucker, ed.
The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social and Military History
2007
The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607-1814
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
Adrian Goldsworthy
Caesar: Life of a Colossus
Peter Karsten, editor
Encyclopedia of War and American Society · 3 vols
2006
H. P. Willmott
The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action
Princes, Posts and Partisans: The Army of Louis XIV and Partisan Warfare in the Netherlands (1673-1678)
Steven E. Woodworth and Kenneth J. Winkle
Atlas of the Civil War
Colin White, ed.
Horatio Nelson, The New Letters
2005
The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941
Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare
James T. Controvich
United States Army Unit and Organizational Histories: A Bibliography
2004
Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!
Terry Copp
Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy
Joshua Brown, ed.
A Good Idea of Hell: Letters from a Chasseur a Pied
Michael J. Crawford, ed.
The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History: Volume III 1814-1815
2003
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
The First World War. Volume I: To Arms
Stuart Hills
By Tank Into Normandy: A Memoir of the Campaign in North-West Europe From D-Day to VE Day
David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds.
Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political and Military History
2002
Mark Stoler
Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliances, and U.S. Strategy in World War II
In the Journal: Mark A. Stoler
At War At Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century
Robert H. Ferrell, editor, for William S. Triplet
A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne, A Colonel in the Armored Divisions, and In the Philippines and Okinawa
2001
Inside Hitler's High Command
Brian McAllister Linn
The Philippine War, 1899-1902
In the Journal: Brian M. Linn
John Whiteclay Chambers II (Editor in Chief)
The Oxford Companion to American Military History
2000
Peter R. Mansoor
The GI Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941-1945
In the Journal: Peter Mansoor
Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution
1990s · 20 awards
1999
David C. Evans and Mark R. Peattie
Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941
John Sugden
Tecumseh: A Life
1998
Brian McAllister Linn
Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940
In the Journal: Brian M. Linn
The King's Army: Warfare, Soldiers, and Society during the Wars of Religion in France, 1562-1576
1997
Courage and Air Warfare: The Allied Aircrew Experience in the Second World War
American Samurai: Myth, Imagination, and the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division, 1941-1951
1996
One Hundred Years of Sea Power: The U.S. Navy, 1890-1990
Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942-1945
1995
David Hackett Fischer
Paul Revere's Ride
A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II
1994
John Keegan
A History of Warfare
An American Profession of Arms: The Army Officer Corps, 1784-1861
1993
The French Foreign Legion
War Plan Orange: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897-1945
1992
The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo
Joseph T. Glatthaar
Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers
1991
Bettie J. Morden
The Women's Army Corps, 1945-1978
Benjamin Isaac
Limits of Empire: The Roman Army in the East
1990
Martin Van Creveld
Technology and War from 2000 B.C. to the Present
The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict
1980s · 4 awards
1989
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Era of the Civil War
The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West
1988
John W. Chambers II
To Raise an Army: The Draft Comes to Modern America
In the Journal: John Whiteclay Chambers II
1987
Donald Smythe
Pershing: General of the Armies