Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize

The Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize is a $50,000 prize sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The award recognizes the best book on American military history in English distinguished by its scholarship, its contribution to the literature, and its appeal to the broadest possible general reading public. Books that touch upon historic military events of other countries may be considered as long as their primary focus is on American military history.

The 2022 prizewinner is Bruce Henderson for Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II (Knopf).

An award ceremony featuring a conversation between Craig L. Symonds, chair of the 2022 prize committee, and Bruce Henderson took place on December 4, 2023, hosted by the New-York Historical Society. 

Submissions

Publishers, critics, and authors may submit or nominate books published in the current year. Please note that as of 2022, only books with a primary focus of American military history can be considered.

To nominate books copyrighted in 2023, please send five copies to the address below before the submission deadline of December 31, 2023.

Daniela Muhling
Book Prize Manager
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
49 West 45th Street, 2nd Floor
New York NY 10036

For more information, please call 646.366.9666 ext.144 or send an email to bookprizes@gilderlehrman.org.

Winners

2022

Bruce Henderson, Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II (Knopf)

2021

Kevin J. Weddle, The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press)

2020

Alexander Mikaberidze, The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History (Oxford University Press)

2019

John C. McManus, Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943 (Dutton-Penguin)

2018

Andrew Lambert, Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World (Yale University Press)

2017

Cathal Nolan, The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost (Oxford University Press)

2016

Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West (Knopf)


Prior to 2016, the prize was known as the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize for Military History, and was awarded to the following:

2015

David L. Preston, Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution (Oxford)

2014

Alexander Watson, Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914–1918 (Basic)

2013

Allen C. Guelzo, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (Knopf)

 

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