| The Wolfson History Prize | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Presented by | Wolfson Foundation |
| Formerly called | Wolfson Literary Awards |
| First awarded | 1972 |
| Website | www |
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; however, until 1987 prizes were awarded at the end of the competition year.
Established in 1972 by the Wolfson Foundation, a UK charitable foundation, they were originally known as the Wolfson Literary Awards. [1] [2]
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Michael Howard | The Grand Strategy: August 1942 – September 1943 | Her Majesty's Stationery Office |
| Keith Thomas | Religion and the Decline of Magic | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | |
| 1973 | W. L. Warren | Henry II | Eyre & Spottiswoode |
| Frances Yates | The Rosicrucian Enlightenment | Routledge & Keegan Paul | |
| 1974 | Moses Finley | The Ancient Economy | Chatto & Windus |
| Theodore Zeldin | France, 1848–1945: Ambition, Love and Politics | Oxford University Press | |
| 1975 | Frances Donaldson | Edward VIII | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| Olwen Hufton | The Poor of Eighteenth-century France 1750–1789 | Oxford University Press | |
| 1976 | Nikolaus Pevsner | A History of Building Types | Thames & Hudson |
| Norman Stone | The Eastern Front: 1914–17 | Hodder & Stoughton | |
| 1977 | Simon Schama | Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands 1780–1813 | Collins |
| Denis Mack Smith | Mussolini's Roman Empire | Longman & Co | |
| 1978 | Alistair Horne | A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954–1962 | Macmillan |
| 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 |
| Quentin Skinner | The Foundations of Modern Political Thought | Cambridge University Press | |
| Mary Soames | Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage | Cassell |
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
| 1981 | John Wyon Burrow | A Liberal Descent: Victorian Historians and the English Past | Cambridge University Press |
| 1982 | John McManners | Death and the Enlightenment: Changing Attitudes to Death Among Christians and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France | Oxford University Press |
| 1983 | Martin Gilbert | Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939–1941 | Heinemann |
| Kenneth Rose | George V | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | |
| 1984 | Antonia Fraser | The Weaker Vessel | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| Maurice Keen | Chivalry | Yale 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 1988 | No award [lower-alpha 1] | ||
| 1989 | Paul Kennedy | The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 To 2000 | Unwin Hyman |
| Richard J. Evans | Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830–1910 | Oxford University Press | |
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Richard A. Fletcher | The Quest for El Cid | Huchinson |
| Donald Cameron Watt | How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939 | William Heinemann | |
| 1991 | Colin Platt | The Architecture of Medieval Britain: A Social History | Yale University Press |
| 1992 | John Bossy | Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair | Yale University Press |
| Alan Bullock | Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives | HarperCollins | |
| 1993 | Linda Colley | Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 | Yale University Press |
| Robert Skidelsky | John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Saviour, 1920–1937 | Pan Macmillan | |
| 1994 | Robert Bartlett | The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950–1350 | Viking |
| Barbara Harvey | Living and Dying in England, 1100–1540: The Monastic Experience | Oxford University Press | |
| 1995 | Fiona MacCarthy | William Morris: A Life for Our Time | Faber and Faber |
| John C. G. Rohl | The Kaiser and His Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany | Cambridge University Press | |
| 1996 | H. C. G. Matthew | Gladstone 1875–1898 | Oxford University Press |
| 1997 | Orlando Figes | A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution | Jonathan Cape |
| 1998 | John Brewer | Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century | HarperCollins |
| Patricia Hollis | Jennie Lee: A Life | Oxford University Press | |
| 1999 | Antony Beevor | Stalingrad | Viking |
| Amanda Vickery | The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England | Yale University Press |
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Joanna Bourke | An Intimate History of Killing | Granta Books |
| Andrew Roberts | Salisbury: Victorian Titan | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | |
| 2001 | Ian Kershaw | Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis | Allen Lane |
| Mark Mazower | The Balkans | Weidenfeld & Nicolson | |
| Roy Porter | Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World | Allen Lane | |
| 2002 | 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 | |
| 2003 | William Dalrymple | White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India | HarperCollins |
| Robert Gildea | Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation | Macmillan | |
| 2004 | 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 | |
| Diarmaid MacCulloch | Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490–1700 | Allen Lane, Penguin Press | |
| 2005 | Richard Overy | The Dictators: Hitler's Germany; Stalin's Russia | Allen Lane, Penguin Press |
| David Reynolds | In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War | Allen Lane, Penguin Press | |
| 2006 | 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 | |
| 2007 | 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 | |
| Adam Tooze | The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy | Allen Lane, Penguin Press | |
| 2008 | John Darwin | After Tamerlane: The Global Story of Empire | Allen Lane |
| Rosemary Hill | God's Architect: Pugin & the Building of Romantic Britain | Allen Lane | |
| 2009 | 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 |
Awards after 2016 have a winner and shortlist of five.
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | David Abulafia | The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans | Winner | [21] [22] |
| Toby Green | A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution | Shortlist | [23] | |
| John Barton | A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths | |||
| Hallie Rubenhold | The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper | |||
| Marion Turner | Chaucer: A European Life | |||
| Prashant Kidambi | Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire | |||
| 2021 | Sudhir Hazareesingh | Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture | Winner | [24] |
| Geoffrey Plank | Atlantic Wars: From the Fifteenth Century to the Age of Revolution | Shortlist | [25] | |
| Richard Ovenden | Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack | |||
| Helen McCarthy | Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood | |||
| Judith Herrin | Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe | |||
| Rebecca Clifford | Survivors: Children's Lives After the Holocaust | |||
| 2022 | Clare Jackson | Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588–1688 | Winner | [26] [27] |
| Marc David Baer | The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs | Shortlist | [28] [29] | |
| Malcolm Gaskill | The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World | |||
| Alex von Tunzelmann | Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History | |||
| Francesca Stavrakopoulou | God: An Anatomy | |||
| Nicholas Orme | Going to Church in Medieval England | |||
| 2023 | Hakim Adi | African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History | Shortlist | [30] [31] |
| James Belich | The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe | |||
| Henrietta Harrison | The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire | |||
| Halik Kochanski | Resistance: The Underground War in Europe 1939-1945 | |||
| Oskar Jensen | Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth Century London | |||
| Emma Smith | Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers |
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