The Wolfson History Prizes are given annually by the Wolfson Foundation. Usually two books are awarded the prize, but occasionally a sort of lifetime achievement award is given for an author's body of work. The prize was established in 1972 to promote excellence in the writing of history that is accessible to the general public. For a book to be considered for the prize, it must be published in the United Kingdom by a British author. The awards are granted in the summer following the year of publication.
RECENT WINNERS OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY AWARDS
Wolfson History Prize (2009)
The winners of the prizes in 2009, awarded at a lunch on 16 June 2010, were:
Jonathan Sumption for Divided Houses: The Hundred Years War (Vol 3) (Faber & Faber)
Professor Dominic Lieven for Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807-1814 (Allen Lane: Penguin Press)
The winners received £20,000 each.
The judges were Sir Keith Thomas FBA (Chairman), Professor Dame Avril Cameron KBE FBA, Professor Richard Evans FBA and Professor Sir David Cannadine FBA.
2008
Professor Mary Beard
Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
(Profile Books Ltd) (£20,000)
Professor Margaret McGowan
Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion,
French Obsession
(Yale University Press) (£20,000)
2007
Professor John Darwin
After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press) (£20,000)
Mrs Rosemary Hill
God’s Architect: Pugin & the Building of Romantic Britain
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press) (£20,000)
2006
Dr Adam Tooze
The Wages of Destruction
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press) (£15,000)
Dr Christopher Clark
Iron Kingdom
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press) (£10,000)
Professor Vic Gatrell
City of Laughter
(Atlantic Books) (£10,000)
2005
Professor Evelyn Welch
Shopping in the Renaissance
(Yale University Press) (£15,000)
Professor Christopher Wickham
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800
(Oxford University Press) (£15,000)
2004
Professor Christopher A Bayly For his distinguished contribution to the writing of history (£15,000)
Professor David Reynolds
In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press) (£12,500)
Professor Richard Overy
The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany; Stalin’s Russia
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press) (£10,000)
Winners 1972-2004
1972 Professor Sir Michael Howard
The Grand Strategy
(HMSO) (£5,000)
Mr K (Sir Keith) Thomas
Religion and the Decline of Magic
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) (£3,000)
1973 Dame Frances Yates
The Rosicrucian Imagination
(Routledge & Kegan Paul) (£5,000)
Professor W L Warren
Henry II
(Eyre & Spottiswoode) (£3,000)
1974 Professor Sir Moses I Finley
The Ancient Economy
(Chatto & Windus) (£5,000)
Dr Theodore Zeldin
France 18481945 Ambition, Love & Politics
(Oxford University Press) (£3,000)
1975 Lady (Frances) Donaldson
Edward VIII
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) (£4,000)
Professor (Dame) Olwen Hufton
The Poor of Eighteenth Century France
(Oxford University Press) (£4,000)
1976 Professor Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
The History of Building Types
(Thames & Hudson) (£5,000)
Dr (Professor) Norman Stone
The Eastern Front
(Hodder & Stoughton) (£4,000)
1977 Mr Denis Mack Smith
Mussolini's Roman Empire
(Longman & Co) (£5,000)
Dr Simon Schama
Patriots and Liberators
(Collins) (£4,000)
1978 Mr H M (Sir Howard) Colvin Notable contribution to the writing of history (£7,000)
Mr (Sir) Alistair Horne
A Savage War of Peace
(Macmillan) (£5,000)
1979 Professor Richard Cobb
Death in Paris
(Oxford University Press) (£5,000)
Lady Soames
Clementine Churchill
(Cassell) (£3,500)
Professor Quentin Skinner
The Foundations of Modern Political Thought
(Cambridge University Press) (£3,500)
1980 Professor F S L Lyons
Culture and Anarchy
(Oxford University Press) (£7,000)
Dr Robert Evans
The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy
(Oxford University Press) (£5,000)
1981 Reverend Sir Owen Chadwick OM Notable contribution to the writing of history (£7,000)
Dr John Burrow
A Liberal Descent
(Cambridge University Press) (£6,000)
1982 Professor Sir Steven Runciman
Notable contribution to the writing of history (£8,000)
Professor John McManners
Death and Enlightenment
(Oxford University Press) (£5,000)
1983 Dr (Sir) Martin Gilbert
Finest Hour
(Heinemann) (£7,500)
Mr Kenneth Rose
George V
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) (£7,500)
1984 Lady Antonia Fraser
The Weaker Vessel
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) (£6,000)
Dr Maurice Keen
Chivalry
(Yale University Press) (£6,000)
1985 Mr John Grigg
Life of Lloyd George
(Methuen) (£7,000)
Dr Richard DavenportHines
Dudley Docker
(Cambridge University Press) (£7,000)
1986 Professor J H (Sir John) Elliott
The Count Duke of Olivares A Statesman in Decline
(Yale University Press) (£7,500)
Professor J Israel
European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism
(Oxford University Press) (£7,500)
| 1987 | Professor R R Davies Conquest, Coexistence and Change Wales 10631415 (Oxford University Press) (£7,500) |
| Dr John Pemble The Mediterranean Passion (Oxford University Press) (£7,500) | |
| 1988 | Professor Paul Kennedy The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (Unwin Hyman) (£7,500) |
| Professor Richard Evans Death in Hamburg (Oxford University Press) (£7,500) | |
| l989 | Professor Donald Cameron Watt How War Came (William Heinemann) (£10,000) |
| Mr Richard Fletcher The Quest for El Cid (Huchinson) (£10,000) | |
| 1990 | Professsor Colin Platt The Architecture of Medieval Britain (Yale University Press) (£10,000) |
| 1991 | Lord Bullock Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (Harper Collins) (£15,000) |
| Professor John Bossy Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair (Yale University Press) (£10,000) | |
| 1992 | Lord Skidelsky John Maynard Keynes: the Economist as Saviour (Pan Macmillan) (£15,000) |
| Professor Linda Colley Britons: Forging the Nations 1707 1837 (Yale University Press) (£5,000) |
1993 Miss Barbara Harvey
Living and Dying in England 11001540
(Oxford University Press) (£10,000)
Professor Robert Bartlett
The Making of Europe
(Viking) (£5,000)
1994 Ms Fiona MacCarthy
William Morris: A Life for Our Time
(Faber and Faber) (£10,000)
Professor John C G Rohl
The Kaiser and his Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany
(Cambridge University Press) (£10,000)
1995 Professor H G C Matthew FBA
Gladstone 18751898
(Oxford University Press) (£15,000)
1996 Dr Orlando Figes
A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 18911924
(Jonathan Cape) (£15,000)
Professor Eric J Hobsbawm FBA For his distinguished contribution to the writing of history (£15,000)
1997 Professor John Brewer
The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century
(HarperCollins) (£10,000)
Patricia Hollis (The Baroness Hollis of Heigham)
Jennie Lee: A Life
(OUP) (£10,000)
1998 Mr Antony Beevor
Stalingrad
(Viking) (£10,000)
Dr Amanda Vickery
The Gentleman’s Daughter
(Yale University Press) (£10,000)
1999 Lord Briggs For his distinguished contribution to the writing of history (£15,000)
Mr Andrew Roberts
Salisbury: Victorian Titan
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) (£12,500)
Professor Joanna Bourke
An Intimate History of Killing
(Granta Books) (£10,000)
2000 Professor Ian Kershaw
Hitler, 19361945: Nemesis
(Allen Lane) (£20,000)
Professor Mark Mazower
The Balkans
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson) (£7,500)
Professor Roy Porter
Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World
(Allen Lane) (£7,500)
2001 Lord Jenkins of Hillhead For his distinguished contribution to the writing of history (£15,000)
Professor Barry Cunliffe
Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples
(Oxford University Press) (£10,000)
Professor Jerry White
London in the 20th Century: A City and Its People
(Viking) (£10,000)
2002 Professor Robert Gildea
Marianne in Chains: In search of the German Occupation 19401945
(Macmillan) (£15,000)
Mr William Dalrymple
White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in EighteenthCentury India
(HarperCollins) (£10,000)
2003 Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch
Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 14901700
(Allen Lane: Penguin Press) (£10,000)
Dr Frances Harris
Transformations of Love: The Friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin
(Oxford University Press) (£7,500)
Professor Julian Jackson
The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940
(Oxford University Press) (£7,500)
