American Battlefield Trust Prize for History
Book prize will recognize outstanding work with $50,000 award
Since its founding in 1987 the American Battlefield Trust has worked to protect the sites on which this nation’s formative conflicts — the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and the Civil War — were decided, recognizing that those landscapes themselves are primary sources by which scholars and armchair historians alike can come to more deeply understand the past. Having now protected 58,000 at more than 155 sites in 25 states and connected more than 16 million teachers and students in 2023 alone, the organization also calls attention to landscape’s intimate connection with the historical record via the American Battlefield Trust Prize for History.
The Prize is made annually to a work of military history or biography that underscores the essential role of the nation’s military conflicts on the founding, formation, and perpetuation of our exceptional country. It is made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor — meaning no money donated to the Trust for operations or programs is diverted to this purpose. It is designed, in the words of inaugural winner Elizabeth Varon, to encourage authors to embrace the potential of historic battlefields as "wellsprings of new knowledge and expertise." Our hope is to galvanize readers to action on behalf of these threatened sites, introducing the pressing need for preservation to audiences already interested in American history.
2025 Prize and Submission Guidelines
The award carries a $50,000 prize for the winner, plus up to two $2,500 recognitions for titles deemed honorable mention. A fuller list of those works deemed finalists by our selection panel will also be publicized when it is turned over to our esteemed judges.
Learn more about the stunning sculpture presented to each year's winner.
Publishers, rather than authors, may nominate works of military history aligned with the Trust’s land preservation mission published in calendar year 2024 through December 31, 2024. Self-published works, including those distributed solely through platforms like Kindle Direct are not eligible. Nomination directions and further details may be obtained by e-mailing bookprize@battlefields.org.
Inaugural Awardees
After a rigorous process to winnow the field, a group of finalists was evaluated by a trio of exceptional historian judges: Dr. James Kirby Martin, Dr. James McPherson and Dr. Joan Waugh. Elizabeth Varon’s Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South was named the winner of the inaugural American Battlefield Trust Prize for History, with D. Scott Hartwig’s I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign and Friederike Baer’s Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War given honorable mention.
The full roster of finalists for the inaugural prize also included:
- Ricardo A. Herrera, Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778, (University of North Carolina Press)
- Mark Edward Lender, Fort Ticonderoga, The Last Campaigns: The War in the North, 1777–1783 (Westholme Publishing)
- George Rable, Conflict of Command: George McClellan, Abraham Lincoln, and the Politics of War (Louisiana State University Press)
- Timothy B. Smith, Early Struggles for Vicksburg: The Mississippi Central Campaign and Chickasaw Bayou, October 25-December 31, 1862 (University of Kansas Press)
- Victor Vignola, Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks. May 31 - June 1, 1862 (Savas Beatie)
- Jack Warren, Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution (Lyons Press)
- Jeffry D. Wert, The Heart of Hell: The Soldiers' Struggle for Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle (University of North Carolina Press)
- Ronald C. White, On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Random House)
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