Daniel Larsen,Betsy Rohaly Smoot,andJustin G. Princeawardedthe 2022Tomlinson prize fortheirWorld War Onebooks
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The World War One Historical Association(WW1HA)annual Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr., prize for 2022forthe best work of history in English on World War One (1914–1918) has beenawarded tothreeexceptional historians:
Daniel Larsen, author of Plotting for Peace: American Peacemakers, British Codebreakers, and Britain at War, 1914–1917(Cambridge University Press)
Betsy Rohaly Smoot’s biography ofParker Hitt: TheFather of American Cryptology(University Press of Kentucky)
Million Dollar Barrage: American Field Artillery in the Great Warby Justin G. Prince (University of OklahomaPress)
This is the seventh time that multiple books won the Tomlinson prize.Four2021 titles shared the awardpresented in 2022, three2018 titles shared the award presented in 2019, threebooks published in 2016 shared the 2017 award, andthree 2010 titlesalsoshared the award presented in 2011. Two bookspublished in2019 received the award in 2020, and two2017booksreceived theawardin 2018.TheTomlinson prize started in 1999.WW1HA recognizes thatquality research is still being done andweareproud that the Tomlinsonisawardedtomore than one book when it is deserved.
TheTomlinsonprizeconsistsof a cash award and original bronze plaquesculpted by AndrewL.Chernak, a U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran whosesculpturesare installedat Arlington Cemetery and state andprivate parks:andrewchernaksculptures.com
Thisawardwasmade possible through a grant from Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr., Director–emeritus of The Western Front Association–United States Branch. (WFA–US became the World War One HistoricalAssociationin 2011.)
HistoriansMichael Neiberg, Graydon Tunstall,andHeatherStreets–Salter,plusformerEditorofWorld War One Illustrated magazineDana Lombardy form the prize jury for the Norman B. Tomlinson Prize.Normallythe prize is awarded in the year following the calendar year of publication, but there areoccasionalexceptions to that policy. Forinformation on how to submit books for the prize, emaildana.lombardy@gmail.comorneiberg102@gmail.com.
Previous Winners
2021
For the fifth time in its history, three books shared the Tomlinson prize:
For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War
By Heather Jones
Cambridge University Press
Global War, Global Catastrophe: Neutrals, Belligerents and the Transformation of the First World War
By Maartje Abbenhuis and Ismee Tames
Bloomsbury Collections
The Austro-Hungarian Army and the First World War
By Graydon A. Tunstall
Cambridge University Press
Honorable Mention
Contact Zones of the First World War: Cultural Encounters across the British Empire
By Anna Maguire
Cambridge University Press
2020
For the fourth time in its history, three books share the Tomlinson prize:
Britain and Italy in the Era of the Great War: Defending and Forging Empires
By Stefano Marcuzzi
Cambridge University Press
Coalition Strategy and the End of the First World War: The Supreme War Council and War Planning, 1917-1918
By Meighen McCrae
Cambridge University Press
The German Failure in Belgium, August 1914: How Faulty Reconnaissance Exposed the Weakness of the Schlieffen Plan
By Dennis Showalter, Joseph P. Robinson and Janet A. Robinson
McFarland & Company
Honorable Mention
Before Bletchley Park: The Codebreakers of the First World War
By Paul Gannon
The History Press
2019
When the War Came Home: The Ottomans’ Great War and the Devastation of an Empire
By Yiğit Akin
Stanford University PressThe Imperial Russian Army in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856-1917
By Roger R. Reese
University Press of Kansas
Honorable Mention
World War I: A Country-by-Country Guide
By Spencer C. Tucker
ABC-CLIO
2018
For the third time in its history, three books share the Tomlinson prize:
Haig’s Enemy: Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany’s War on the Western Front
By Jonathan Boff
Oxford University Press, 2018
The Generals’ War: Operational Level Command on the Western Front in 1918
By David T. Zabecki
Indiana University Press, 2018
Pandora’s Box: A History of the First World War
By Jörn Leonhard
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018
Honorable Mention
World War One in Southeast Asia: Colonialism and Anticolonialism in an Era of Global Conflict
By Heather Streets-Salter
2017
Co-Winners:
The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End
By Robert Gerwarth
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017
Pershing’s Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I
By Richard Faulkner
University Press of Kansas, 2017
2016
For the second time in its history, three books share the Tomlinson prize:
Instrument of War: The German Army 1914-1918
By Dennis Showalter
Osprey Publishing, 2016
The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America
By Michael S. Neiberg
Oxford University Press, 2016
Written in Blood: The Battle for Fortress Przemysl in WWI
By Graydon “Jack” Tunstall
Indiana University Press, 2016
2015
Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War
By James Lyon
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015
2014
Verdun: The Longest Battle of the Great War
By Paul Jankowski
Oxford University Press, 2013
2013
Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War
By Nicholas A. Lambert
Harvard University Press, 2012
2012
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I
By Glenn E. Torrey
The University Press of Kansas, 2011
2011
The Russian Origins of the First World War
By Sean McMeekin
Harvard University Press, 2011
2010
The Final Battle: Soldiers of the Western Front in the German Revolution of 1918
By D. Scott Stephenson
Cambridge University Press, 2009Blood on the Snow: The Carpathian Winter War of 1915
By Graydon “Jack” Tunstall
University Press of Kansas, 2010Breakthrough: The Gorlice-Tarnow Campaign, 1915
By Richard L. DiNardo
Praeger, 2010
2009
Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century
By William James Philpott
Little Brown, 2009
2008
The Second Battle of the Marne
By Michael Neiberg
University of Indiana Press, 2008
2007
To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918
By Edward Lengel
Henry Holt & Company, 2008
2006
Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War
By Brigadier General Robert A. Doughty, USA (Ret.)
Harvard University Press, 2005
2005
Fighting Different Wars: Experience, Memory and the First World War in Britain
By Janet S. K. Watson
Cambridge University Press, 2004
2004
A Fraternity of Arms: America and France in the Great War
By Robert B. Bruce
University Press of Kansas, 2003
2003
France and The Great War, 1914-1918
By Leonard V. Smith, Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau & Annette Becker
Cambridge University Press, 2002
2002
German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial
By John Horne & Alan Kramer,
Yale University Press
2001
The First World War Volume I: To Arms
By Hew Strachan,
Oxford University Press, 2001
2000
Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution
By Nicholas A. Lambert
University of South Carolina Press, 1999
1999
The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914-1918
By Holger H. Herwig
Edward Arnold Publishing, 1997
A second edition was published by Bloomsbury in 2014 with new material on the domestic front and internal political and ethnic fissures.
We are changing the WW1HA’s newsletter’s publication schedule to monthly. Publishing “Here and There with the WW1HA” twice a year provides too few opportunities to interact effectively with the membership! So, we’re going to go with shorter, monthly publications via our Constant Contact mailing list. My goal is that each issue will contain a brief comment from the President / Officers, a quick summary of WW1-related news, and a focus on a member and his/her research in each issue. What else should it include? You tell me: lavarennes@meuse-argonne.com.
Membership was very low at the beginning of the year, so we have formed a Membership Committee. The first action taken was to contact 2020-22 members who had not renewed in 2023. That was the low-hanging fruit. The second action will be to increase year-end renewal reminders and touch points with the membership—also low-hanging fruit. The third action will be to explore ways to reach beyond our current customers.
On 11 March we held our first quarterly Fireside Chat—with 27 participants—using Zoom. Again, this provided interaction with our members. We will be doing these quarterly and will be announcing the next one shortly. The top two responses of how/why members got excited about WW1 were 1) family involvement in the war and 2) aviation. How do we use this information to grow membership?
A small group of us are actively posting in the World War One Historical Association’s Facebook Group. Join us there.
Ed Klekowski is itching to do a Summer (third) issue of World War One Illustrated. He is working on the first Summer issue as we speak.
I have not made major changes to the website yet, because of the above-mentioned initiatives. That said, I did modernize the Chapters/Events Page to reflect our current activities.
I hope these efforts breathe new life into the Association, and I want to encourage you to do your bit. If you have a good idea, tell me about it. Better yet, step up and be willing to take a more active role.
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