Evan Mawdsley Wins the Twelfth Annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Evan Mawdsley Wins the Twelfth Annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize
AWARD PROGRAM TO TAKE PLACE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2025
New York, NY, October 9, 2025 – The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announced today that Evan Mawdsley has been awarded the twelfth annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize for Supremacy at Sea: Task Force 58 and the Central Pacific Victory (Yale University Press, 2024). The $50,000 prize is bestowed in recognition of the best eligible English-language book in the field of American military history, distinguished by its scholarship, its contribution to the literature, and its appeal to the broadest possible general reading public.
An event celebrating the winner and the two shortlisted authors will take place on Tuesday, December 2 at the Yale Club of New York. Tickets to attend this free program are available online.
Finalists for this year’s prize were chosen by a three-member jury chaired by Colonel (Retired) Kevin J. Weddle, Distinguished Fellow, United States Army War College. He was joined by Michael S. Neiberg, Professor of History and Chair of War Studies at the United States Army War College, and Susannah J. Ural, Professor of History and Frank and Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies at Mississippi State University.
The final choice was made by the prize board: James G. Basker, President and CEO of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; Robert C. Daum, former chairman and current trustee of the American Battlefield Trust; Lieutenant General (Retired) Michelle D. Johnson; Robert H. Niehaus; and S. Griffin (Griff) Norquist III.
“Supremacy at Sea is a masterfully researched and vividly narrated account that brings to life the strategic brilliance and operational might of the US Navy’s most formidable carrier force. Mawdsley’s deep historical insight and crisp prose transform complex naval engagements into an accessible, gripping chronicle of American maritime dominance in World War II,” said James G. Basker.
“This is an excellent narrative history of what was arguably the most powerful naval force ever created, the US Navy’s Task Force 58 of the Pacific Fleet,” wrote jury chair Kevin Weddle in his report to the prize board. He continued, “A particularly noteworthy feature of Supremacy at Sea is Mawdsley’s deep dive into the logistical support of this immense and complex force.”
“As an historian I am greatly honored to receive what has become such a prestigious prize for the profession. I also strongly welcome the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s encouragement of history that is both of high quality and attractive to a broad audience, and especially to students. It is important that this encouragement includes military history as a rich subject fully worthy of study,” said Evan Mawdsley.
Evan Mawdsley is a British historian and former professor of international history in the Department of History at the University of Glasgow. He currently serves as a professorial research fellow in the university’s School of Humanities. His areas of expertise include twentieth-century Russian history and the history of the Second World War. He is the author of December 1941 (2011), World War II: A New History (2009), and The Stalin Years (1998). He is also the general editor of the three-volume Cambridge History of the Second World War (2015). He received the Anderson Medal from the Society for Nautical Research for his 2019 book, The War for the Seas: A Maritime History of World War II, recognizing it as the best maritime non-fiction book of that year.
The purpose of the Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize is to draw public attention to military history not only as an important staple of education in the areas of international relations, diplomacy, and conflict studies, but also as a subject in which any educated citizen should be interested. The study of the steps to war, conduct of military campaigns, and diplomatic responses to war can play an essential role in the quest for a more peaceable future.
There were 94 books submitted for consideration by publishers in the United States and the United Kingdom for the twelfth annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize. Three finalists were chosen from this pool, including Tim Cook for The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War and Vaughn Scribner for Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America (The University of North Carolina Press, 2024).
Previous winners include Peter Cozzens in 2016 for The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West (Knopf), John C. McManus for Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943 (Dutton Caliber), Kevin J. Weddle for The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press), Bruce Henderson for Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II (Knopf), and most recently Craig L. Symonds for Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (Oxford University Press).
The prize was originated by Lewis E. Lehrman, co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, author, and champion of studies in American political and military history.
About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI) was founded in 1994 by Lewis E. Lehrman and the late Richard Gilder, visionaries and lifelong supporters of American history education. The Institute is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to K–12 history education while also serving the general public. Its mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources, at the core of which is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history, with more than 87,000 primary source documents. Learn more at gilderlehrman.org and follow GLI on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and X.
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