Wolfson History Prize
Encyclopedia
The Wolfson History Prizes are literary award
s 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).
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 of the following year (i.e. the 2008 prize is announced in the summer of 2009).
The Wolfson History Prizes, formerly the Wolfson Literary Awards, were established in 1972 by the Wolfson Foundation
, a UK charitable foundation.
Literary award
A literary award is an award presented to an author who has written a particularly lauded piece or body of work. There are awards for forms of writing ranging from poetry to novels. Many awards are also dedicated to a certain genre of fiction or non-fiction writing . There are also awards...
s given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
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).
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 of the following year (i.e. the 2008 prize is announced in the summer of 2009).
The Wolfson History Prizes, formerly the Wolfson Literary Awards, were established in 1972 by the Wolfson Foundation
Wolfson Foundation
The Wolfson Foundation is a charity that awards grants to support excellence in the fields of science and medicine, health, education and the arts & humanities.- Overview :...
, a UK charitable foundation.
List of winners of the Oeuvre Prize
- 2004 – Christopher Bayly
- 2001 – Roy JenkinsRoy JenkinsRoy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...
- 1999 – Asa Briggs
- 1996 – Eric HobsbawmEric HobsbawmEric John Ernest Hobsbawm , CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian, public intellectual, and author...
- 1982 – Steven RuncimanSteven RuncimanThe Hon. Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH — known as Steven Runciman — was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages...
- 1981 – Owen ChadwickOwen ChadwickWilliam Owen Chadwick, OM, KBE, FBA, FRSE is a British professor, writer and prominent historian of Christianity. He was also a rugby union player.-Early life and education:Chadwick was born in Bromley in 1916...
- 1978 – Howard ColvinHoward ColvinSir Howard Montagu Colvin, CVO, CBE , was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field.-Life and works:...
List of winning books
- 2010
Ruth Harris, The Man on Devil's Island: The Affair that Divided France (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
Nicholas Thomas Islanders: The Pacific in the Age of Empire (Yale University Press) - 2009
Dominic LievenDominic LievenDominic Lieven is Professor of Russian Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Fellow of the British Academyand of Trinity College, Cambridge...
, Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807–1814 (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
Jonathan SumptionJonathan SumptionJonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, OBE, QC is a UK barrister and medieval historian. On 4 May 2011 it was announced that he had been appointed to the United Kingdom Supreme Court, to be sworn in at a date agreed between him and Lord Phillips, President of the Supreme Court.He is known for his...
Divided Houses: The Hundred Years War (Vol. 3) (Faber & Faber) - 2008
Mary BeardMary Beard (classicist)Winifred Mary Beard is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Newnham College. She is the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and author of the blog "", which appears in The Times as a regular column...
, Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile Books)
Margaret M. McGowanMargaret M. McGowanMargaret M. McGowan is a noted dance historian and historian of early modern France. Her work is primarily focused on the late Renaissance and the fin-de-siècle period at the end of the nineteenth century...
, Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion, French Obsession (Yale University Press) - 2007
John Darwin, After Tamerlane: The Global Story of Empire (Allen Lane)
Rosemary HillRosemary HillRosemary Hill is an English writer and historian. She has published widely on 19th and 20th century cultural history, but she is best known for God's Architect, her multi-award-winning biography of Augustus Pugin...
God’s Architect: Pugin & the Building of Romantic Britain (Allen Lane) - 2006
Adam ToozeAdam ToozeAdam Tooze is a British historian and was Reader in Modern European Economic History at the University of Cambridge. In 2002, he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for Modern History. As of Summer 2010, he is a professor of history at Yale University.He is currently best known for his economic...
, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi EconomyThe Wages of DestructionThe Wages of Destruction is an award-winning non-fiction book detailing the economic history of Nazi Germany. Written by Adam Tooze, it was first published by Allen Lane in 2006....
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
Christopher ClarkChristopher ClarkChristopher M. Clark is an Australian historian working in England. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School, the University of Sydney and the Freie Universität Berlin.-Life:...
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
Vic GatrellVic GatrellVic Gatrell is a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and a member of the Cambridge history faculty. Born in South Africa, he went to Rhodes University before taking honours in history and completing his Ph.D. in Cambridge...
City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London (Atlantic Books) - 2005
Evelyn Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance (Yale University Press)
Christopher WickhamChristopher WickhamChristopher John Wickham, FBA is Chichele Professor of Medieval History in the University of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College.-Biography:...
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 (Oxford University Press) - 2004
David ReynoldsDavid Reynolds (English historian)David Reynolds FBA is Professor of International History and a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He was educated at Dulwich College, then Cambridge and Harvard Universities. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Nebraska and Oklahoma, as well as at Nihon University in Tokyo...
, In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
Richard OveryRichard OveryRichard Overy is a British historian who has published extensively on the history of World War II and the Third Reich. In 2007 as The Times editor of Complete History of the World he chose the 50 key dates of world history....
The Dictators: Hitler's Germany; Stalin's Russia (Allen Lane: Penguin Press) - 2003
Diarmaid MacCullochDiarmaid MacCullochDiarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch FBA, FSA, FR Hist S is Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford...
, 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. JacksonJulian T. JacksonJulian T. Jackson is a prominent British historian. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London Julian Jackson is one of the leading authorities on twentieth-century France.He was educated at the University of...
The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 (Oxford University Press) - 2002
Robert GildeaRobert GildeaRobert Nigel Gildea is professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and is the author of several influential books on 20th century French history. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, before attending St Antony's for a D.Phil under the supervision of Theodore Zeldin. His D.Phil...
, Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation (Macmillan)
William Dalrymple White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century IndiaWhite MughalsWhite Mughals is a 2002 history book by William Dalrymple.Its Dalrymple's fifth major book.-Summary:The book is a work of social history about the warm relations that existed between the British and some Indians in the 18th and early 19th century, when one in three British men in India was married...
(HarperCollins) - 2001
Barry CunliffeBarry CunliffeSir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, CBE, known professionally as Barry Cunliffe is a former Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, a position held from 1972 to 2007...
, 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 KershawIan KershawSir Ian Kershaw is a British historian of 20th-century Germany whose work has chiefly focused on the period of the Third Reich...
, Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis (Allen Lane)
Mark MazowerMark MazowerMark A. Mazower is a British historian. His expertise is Greece, the Balkans and, more generally, 20th century Europe. He is currently a professor of history at Columbia University in New York City.-Career:...
The Balkans (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Roy PorterRoy PorterRoy Sydney Porter was a British historian noted for his prolific work on the history of medicine.-Life:...
Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World (Allen Lane) - 1999
Andrew Roberts, Salisbury: Victorian Titan (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Joanna BourkeJoanna BourkeJoanna Bourke is an historian and professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London.-Biography:Born to Christian missionary parents, Bourke was brought up in Zambia, Solomon Islands and Haiti. After home education with her siblings she attended Auckland University, gaining a BA and masters in...
An Intimate History of Killing (Granta Books) - 1998
Antony BeevorAntony BeevorAntony James Beevor, FRSL is a British historian, educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst. He studied under the famous military historian John Keegan. Beevor is a former officer with the 11th Hussars who served in England and Germany for five years before resigning his commission...
, StalingradStalingrad (book)Written by Antony Beevor, Stalingrad is a narrative history of the epic battle fought in and around the city of Stalingrad during World War II, as well as the events leading up to it and those which occurred after...
(Viking)
Amanda VickeryAmanda VickeryAmanda Vickery is a British historian and television presenter.She graduated from the former Bedford College, London where she completed her PhD in Modern History...
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 FigesOrlando FigesOrlando Figes is a British historian of Russia, and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.-Overview:Figes is the son of the feminist writer Eva Figes. His sister is the author and editor Kate Figes. He attended William Ellis School in north London from 1971-78...
, A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian RevolutionA People's TragedyA People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 is an award-winning book written by British historian Orlando Figes. First published in 1996, it chronicles Russian history from the Famine of 1891-1892, the response to which, Figes argues, severely weakened the Russian Empire, to the death of...
(Jonathan Cape) - 1995
H.C.G. MatthewColin MatthewHenry Colin Gray Matthew , an historian, was the first editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and editor of the diaries of William Ewart Gladstone....
, Gladstone 1875–1898 (Oxford University Press) - 1994
Fiona MacCarthyFiona MacCarthyFiona MacCarthy OBE is a British biographer and cultural historian best known for her studies of 19th and 20th century arts, crafts and design....
, William Morris: A Life for Our Time (Faber & Faber)
John C. G. RohlJohn C. G. RöhlJohn C. G. Röhl is a British historian.Originally from London, England, Röhl taught in Germany. He then became a professor of European history at the University of Sussex. He is a leading expert of the Wilhelmine German Empire, having written a two-volume biography of Emperor William II.-Books by...
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 BartlettRobert Bartlett (historian)Robert Bartlett FRHistS, FBA, FRSE, FSA is a historian and medievalist. Bartlett is English, though his academic interests cover the whole of Europe....
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 ColleyLinda ColleyLinda Colley, CBE, FBA, FRSL, FRHistS is a historian of Britain, empire and nationalism. She is Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University in the United States.-Early life and education:...
Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (Yale University Press) - 1991
Alan BullockAlan BullockAlan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock , was a British historian, who wrote an influential biography of Adolf Hitler and many other works.-Early life and career:...
, 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) - 1989
Donald Cameron Watt, How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939 (William Heinemann)
Richard A. FletcherRichard A. FletcherRichard A. Fletcher was a historian who specialized in the medieval period. He was Professor of History at the University of York and one of the outstanding talents in English and Spanish medieval scholarship....
The Quest for El Cid (Huchinson) - 1988
Paul KennedyPaul KennedyPaul Michael Kennedy CBE, FBA , is a British historian at Yale University specialising in the history of international relations, economic power and grand strategy. He has published prominent books on the history of British foreign policy and Great Power struggles...
, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 To 2000 (Unwin Hyman)
Richard EvansRichard J. EvansRichard John Evans is a British academic and historian, prominently known for his history of Germany.-Life:Evans was born in London, of Welsh parentage, and is now Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and President of Wolfson College...
Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830–1910 (Oxford University Press) - 1987
R. R. DaviesRees DaviesSir Robert Rees Davies CBE , was a noted Welsh historian.He was born in Merionethshire, and educated at Bala grammar school. He was bilingual in Welsh and English. He received a First in his degree from University College, London, where he later returned as a lecturer...
, 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. ElliottJohn Huxtable ElliottSir John Huxtable Elliott, FBA , who normally publishes as J.H. Elliott, is an eminent historian, Regius Professor Emeritus in the University of Oxford and Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge....
, The Count-Duke Of Olivares: The Statesman In An Age Of Decline (Yale University Press)
Jonathan IsraelJonathan IsraelProfessor Jonathan Irvine Israel is a British writer on Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment and European Jewry. Israel was appointed the Modern European History Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Township, New Jersey, U.S...
European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750 (Oxford University Press) - 1985
John GriggJohn Grigg (writer)John Edward Poynder Grigg was a British writer, historian and politician. He was the 2nd Baron Altrincham from 1955 until he disclaimed that title under the Peerage Act on the day it received the Royal Assent in 1963.-Early years:John Grigg was the son of Edward Grigg, a Times journalist...
, Lloyd George, From Peace To War 1912–1916 (Methuen)
Richard Davenport-HinesRichard Davenport-HinesRichard Davenport-Hines is a British historian and literary biographer, best known for his biography of the poet W. H. Auden....
Dudley Docker: The Life and Times of a Trade Warrior (Cambridge University Press) - 1984
Antonia FraserAntonia FraserLady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
, The Weaker Vessel (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Maurice KeenMaurice KeenMaurice Hugh Keen is a British historian specialising in the Middle Ages. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, where he lectured in Medieval history from 1961-2000.In 1984 he won the Wolfson History Prize for his book Chivalry....
Chivalry (Yale University Press) - 1983
Martin GilbertMartin GilbertSir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history...
, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939–1941 (Heinemann)
Kenneth RoseKenneth RoseKenneth Vivian Rose is a royal biographer in the United Kingdom.Rose is an award winning writer, having won the prestigious Whitbread Book Award in the biography category in 1983 for his book, King George V...
George V (Weidenfeld & Nicholson) - 1982
John McMannersJohn McMannersJohn "Jack" McManners CBE FBA was a British clergyman and historian of religion who specialized in the history of the Church and other aspects of religious life in 18th century France...
, 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 EvansRobert John Weston EvansProfessor Robert John Weston Evans FLSW FBA is a historian, whose speciality is the post-medieval history of Central and Eastern Europe. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and Jesus College, Cambridge. Evans is Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, and a...
, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550–1700: An Interpretation (Oxford University Press) - 1979
Richard CobbRichard CobbRichard Charles Cobb was a British historian. He became Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford, after an initially unconventional academic career in which he spent a dozen years working as an independent scholar in French archives. His work was recognised in France by the award of...
, 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 SkinnerQuentin SkinnerQuentin Robert Duthie Skinner is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University of London.-Biography:...
The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge University Press) - 1978
Alistair HorneAlistair HorneSir Alistair Allan Horne is a British historian of modern France. He is the son of Sir James Horne and Lady Auriol Horne ....
, A Savage War of Peace : Algeria, 1954–1962 (Macmillan) - 1977
Denis Mack SmithDenis Mack SmithDenis Mack Smith CBE is an English historian, specialising in the history of Italy from the Risorgimento onwards. He is best known for studies of Garibaldi and Cavour and of Mussolini, and for his single-volume Modern Italy: A Political History...
, Mussolini's Roman Empire (Longman & Co)
Simon SchamaSimon SchamaSimon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...
Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780–1813 (Collins) - 1976
Nikolaus PevsnerNikolaus PevsnerSir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
, A History of Building Types (Thames & Hudson)
Norman StoneNorman StoneNorman Stone is a British academic, historian, author and is currently a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara...
The Eastern Front: 1914–17 (Hodder & Stoughton) - 1975
Frances Donaldson, Edward VIII (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Olwen HuftonOlwen HuftonDame Olwen H. Hufton, DBE, FBA, FRHistS is a historian of early modern Europe and a pioneer of social history and of women's history. Hufton is an expert on Early Modern, western European comparative socio-cultural history with special emphasis on gender, poverty, social relations, religion and work...
The Poor of Eighteenth-century France 1750–1789 (Oxford University Press) - 1974
Moses Finley, The Ancient EconomyThe Ancient Economy (book)The Ancient Economy is a book about the economic system of classical antiquity written by the classicist Moses I. Finley. It was originally published in 1973. Finley interprets the economy from 1000BC to 500AD sociologically, instead of using economic models . He attempted to prove that the ancient...
(Chatto & Windus)
Theodore ZeldinTheodore ZeldinTheodore Zeldin CBE , President of the Oxford Muse Foundation, is an English philosopher, sociologist, historian, writer and public speaker....
France, 1848–1945: Ambition, Love and Politics (Oxford University Press) - 1973
Frances YatesFrances YatesDame Frances Amelia Yates DBE was a British historian. She taught at the Warburg Institute of the University of London for many years.She wrote extensively on the occult or Neoplatonic philosophies of the Renaissance...
, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (Routledge & Keegan Paul)
W.L. Warren Henry II (Eyre & Spottiswoode) - 1972
Michael HowardMichael Howard (historian)Sir Michael Eliot Howard, OM, CH, CBE, MC, FBA is a British military historian, formerly Chichele Professor of the History of War and Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, and Robert A...
, The Grand Strategy: August 1942 – September 1943 (Her Majesty's Stationery Office)
Keith ThomasKeith Thomas (historian)Sir Keith Vivian Thomas is a Welsh historian, best known as the author of Religion and the Decline of Magic and Man and the Natural World.-Biography:...
Religion and the Decline of Magic (Weidenfeld & Nicholson)