Wolfson History Prize
The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works published during the year, with an occasional oeuvre prize (a general award for an individual's distinguished contribution to the writing of history). They are awarded and administered by the Wolfson Foundation, with winning books being chosen by a panel of judges composed of eminent historians.
In order to qualify for consideration, a book must be published in the United Kingdom and the author must be a British subject at the time the award is made and normally resident in the UK. Books should be readable and scholarly and be accessible to the lay reader. Prizes are awarded in the summer following the year of the books' publication.
Established in 1972 by the Wolfson Foundation, a UK charitable foundation, they were originally known as the Wolfson Literary Awards.[1][2]
List of winning books (year published)
2010s
- 2014
- Richard Vinen, National Service: Conscription in Britain, 1945-1963 (Allen Lane, Penguin Books)[3]
- Alexander Watson, Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914-1918 (Allen Lane, Penguin Books)[4]
- 2013
- Cyprian Broodbank, The Making of the Middle Sea (Thames & Hudson) [5][6]
- Catherine Merridale, Red Fortress: The Secret Heart of Russia's History (Allen Lane, Penguin Books)[5][6][7]
- 2012
- Christopher Duggan, Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini’s Italy (Boydell Press) [8]
- Susan Brigden, Thomas Wyatt: The Heart’s Forest (Faber & Faber)[8]
- 2011
- Susie Harries, Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life (Chatto & Windus)
- Alexandra Walsham, The Reformation of the Landscape (Oxford University Press)
- 2010
- Ruth Harris, The Man on Devil's Island: The Affair that Divided France (Allen Lane, Penguin Books)
- Nicholas Thomas, Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire (Yale University Press)
2000s
- 2009
- Dominic Lieven, Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807–1814 (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
- Jonathan Sumption, Divided Houses: The Hundred Years War (Vol. 3) (Faber & Faber)
- 2008
- Mary Beard, Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile Books)
- Margaret M. McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion, French Obsession (Yale University Press)
- 2007
- John Darwin, After Tamerlane: The Global Story of Empire (Allen Lane)
- Rosemary Hill, God’s Architect: Pugin & the Building of Romantic Britain (Allen Lane)
- 2006
- Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
- Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
- Vic Gatrell, City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London (Atlantic Books)
- 2005
- Evelyn Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance (Yale University Press)
- Christopher Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 (Oxford University Press)
- 2004
- David Reynolds, In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
- Richard Overy, The Dictators: Hitler's Germany; Stalin's Russia (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
- 2003
- Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
- Frances Harris, Transformations of Love: The Friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin (Oxford University Press)
- Julian T. Jackson, The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 (Oxford University Press)
- 2002
- Robert Gildea, Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation (Macmillan)
- William Dalrymple, White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India (HarperCollins)
- 2001
- Barry Cunliffe, Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples (Oxford University Press)
- Jerry White, London in the 20th Century: A City and Its Peoples (Viking)
- 2000
- Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis (Allen Lane)
- Mark Mazower, The Balkans (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
- Roy Porter, Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World (Allen Lane)
1990s
- 1999
Andrew Roberts, Salisbury: Victorian Titan (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Joanna Bourke, An Intimate History of Killing (Granta Books) - 1998
Antony Beevor, Stalingrad (Viking)
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England (Yale University Press) - 1997
John Brewer, Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (HarperCollins)
Patricia Hollis Jennie Lee: A Life (Oxford University Press) - 1996
Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution (Jonathan Cape) - 1995
H. C. G. Matthew, Gladstone 1875–1898 (Oxford University Press) - 1994
Fiona MacCarthy, William Morris: A Life for Our Time (Faber & Faber)
John C. G. Rohl The Kaiser and His Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany (Cambridge University Press) - 1993
Barbara Harvey, Living and Dying in England, 1100–1540: The Monastic Experience (Oxford University Press)
Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950–1350 (Viking) - 1992
Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Saviour, 1920–1937 (Pan Macmillan)
Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (Yale University Press) - 1991
Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (Harper Collins)
John Bossy, Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair (Yale University Press) - 1990
Colin Platt, The Architecture of Medieval Britain: A Social History (Yale University Press)
1980s
- 1989
Donald Cameron Watt, How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939 (William Heinemann)
Richard A. Fletcher, The Quest for El Cid (Huchinson) - 1988
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 To 2000 (Unwin Hyman)
Richard Evans, Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830–1910 (Oxford University Press) - 1987
R. R. Davies, Conquest, Coexistence, and Change: Wales, 1063–1415 (Oxford University Press)
John Pemble, The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians And Edwardians in the South (Oxford University Press) - 1986
J.H. Elliott, The Count-Duke Of Olivares: The Statesman In An Age Of Decline (Yale University Press)
Jonathan Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750 (Oxford University Press) - 1985
John Grigg, Lloyd George, From Peace To War 1912–1916 (Methuen)
Richard Davenport-Hines, Dudley Docker: The Life and Times of a Trade Warrior (Cambridge University Press) - 1984
Antonia Fraser, The Weaker Vessel (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Maurice Keen, Chivalry (Yale University Press) - 1983
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939–1941 (Heinemann)
Kenneth Rose, George V (Weidenfeld & Nicholson) - 1982
John McManners, Death and the Enlightenment: Changing Attitudes to Death Among Christians and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France (Oxford University Press) - 1981
John Wyon Burrow, A Liberal Descent: Victorian Historians and the English Past (Cambridge University Press) - 1980
F. S. L. Lyons, Culture and Anarchy in Ireland, 1890–1939 (Oxford University Press)
Robert Evans, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550–1700: An Interpretation (Oxford University Press)
1970s
- 1979
Richard Cobb, Death in Paris: The Records of the Basse-Geôle de la Seine, October 1795 – September 1801, Vendémiaire Year IV-Fructidor Year IX (Oxford University Press)
Mary Soames, Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage (Cassell)
Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge University Press) - 1978
Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace : Algeria, 1954–1962 (Macmillan) - 1977
Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini's Roman Empire (Longman & Co)
Simon Schama, Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780–1813 (Collins) - 1976
Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types (Thames & Hudson)
Norman Stone, The Eastern Front: 1914–17 (Hodder & Stoughton) - 1975
Frances Donaldson, Edward VIII (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Olwen Hufton, The Poor of Eighteenth-century France 1750–1789 (Oxford University Press) - 1974
Moses Finley, The Ancient Economy (Chatto & Windus)
Theodore Zeldin, France, 1848–1945: Ambition, Love and Politics (Oxford University Press) - 1973
Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge & Keegan Paul)
W. L. Warren, Henry II (Eyre & Spottiswoode) - 1972
Michael Howard, The Grand Strategy: August 1942 – September 1943 (Her Majesty's Stationery Office)
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
List of winners of the Oeuvre Prize
- 2004 – Christopher Bayly
- 2001 – Roy Jenkins
- 1999 – Asa Briggs
- 1996 – Eric Hobsbawm
- 1982 – Steven Runciman
- 1981 – Owen Chadwick
- 1978 – Howard Colvin
See also
- Alan Ball Local History Awards
- The Whitfield Prize
- Ranki Prize
References
- ↑ "Wolfson History Prize - The Wolfson Foundation". Wolfson.org.uk. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
- ↑ "Wolfson History Prize Winners". Goodreads.com. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
- ↑ Wolfson History Prize Winners www.wolfson.org.uk/history-prize/previous-winners/
- ↑ Wolfson History Prize Winners www.wolfson.org.uk/history-prize/previous-winners/
- 1 2 "Prize Winners - The Wolfson Foundation". Wolfson.org.uk. 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
- 1 2 "The Wolfson History Prize 2014". History Today. 2014-06-03. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
- ↑ "Serious history books will soon become a rarity, Wolfson History Prize winner says". Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
- 1 2 "Winners of the Wolfson History Prize Announced". History Today. 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2014-06-13.