Distinguished Book Awards for 2024

Background: The Society for Military History is soliciting nominations for its annual Distinguished Book Awards for 2024. Established in 1933, the Society is devoted to stimulating and advancing the study of military history. Its membership (today more than 2,600) includes many of the most prominent scholars, soldiers, and citizens interested in military history. The Society encourages research and publication across the whole range of military history (ancient, medieval, and modern, including related popular studies). The Society publishes The Journal of Military History, the leading international scholarly journal of military history.

The Distinguished Book Awards: For the 2024 awards, books published (copyright date) in 2022 and 2023 are eligible. Works previously nominated for the Society’s book awards may be resubmitted provided they were published in 2022. Nominated books should be assigned to one of the following prize categories:

  • American Military History (works by single or multiple authors reflecting original research and original contributions to military history)
  • Non-American Military History (works by single or multiple authors reflecting original research and original contributions to military history)
  • Reference Works (materials that contain collections of information, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, handbooks, and diagnostic manuals.)
  • Biography and Memoirs (works that examine the life of a single individual or the lives of multiple individuals; or first-person accounts of lived experiences in the context of war and/or the military)
  • First Book (works that represent a single author’s first monograph)
  • Trade Press (works of high intellectual quality aimed at a larger public audience than is usual for specialized, academic monographs)
The committee will make its selections for awards by January 30, 2024. The Society will give the awards at its annual meeting in Arlington, Va, April 18-21, 2024. The author of each prize-winning book will receive recognition at the Society’s annual awards presentation, an award plaque, and a $1000 prize.

The Committee must receive books for consideration for the 2024 awards by September 30, 2023.
 
Publishers must follow this process for each volume they intend to submit:
  1. Complete the online submission process which can be found at the following link: https://www.abstractscorecard.com/cfp/submit/login.asp?EventKey=QGTWSSTG
  2. Send a copy of each book for consideration to each committee member at the addresses/contact details listed below before September 30, 2023.
Books must be submitted in physical copy, and electronic versions will not be considered. The Committee recognizes the expense to authors and publishers associated with submitting five copies of each nominated book and therefore encourages serious submissions only. Please note that books will not be returned and that only award winners will be notified of selection.

At the discretion of the Committee submissions which are received after September 30, 2023 may be deferred for consideration in the 2025 awards.

Sincerely,

Lesley J. Gordon, PhD
Chair SMH Book Awards Committee

Email: ljgordon1@ua.edu




SMH 2024 Distinguished Book Awards
Committee Member Addresses

Marion Dorsey, PhD
14 Fogg Drive
Durham, NH 03824

Richard Fogarty, PhD
Department of History
University at Albany, SUNY,
1400 Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12222  

Lesley J. Gordon, PhD
Dept of History
255 Ten Hoor Hall
Box 870212
350 Marrs Spring Road
Univ. of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

Matthew Neufeld, PhD
Department of History
University of Saskatchewan
Arts Tower
9 Campus Drive
Saskatoon SK S7N 5A5
Canada

Debra Sheffer, PhD
9002 N. Camden Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64154