The Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History at the New-York Historical Society is a $50,000 prize administered by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the New-York Historical Society. Each year the award recognizes the best book on military history in the English-speaking world distinguished by its scholarship, its contribution to the literature, and its appeal to both a general and an academic audience.
Last year’s award ceremony for the 2019 prize was presented online, and features a 30-minute conversation between Andrew Roberts, chair of the prize committee, and the winner, John C. McManus, for Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943. Read more about Professor McManus and Fire and Fortitude here.
The 2020 prize ceremony will take place on November 4, 2021, at the New-York Historical Society. For information on attending, please email events@gilderlehrman.org.
Submissions
Publishers may submit as many titles as they wish. For submission instructions, please write to:
Daniela Muhling
Book Prize Manager
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
49 West 45th Street, 2nd Floor
New York NY 10036
email: muhling@gilderlehrman.org
Books copyrighted in 2021 must be submitted for consideration by December 1, 2021.
Winners
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)