We are advantage evangelists on behalf of the study of history. And one of our judges in a conversation today began talking about a High School Teacher he had had when he was 14 or 15 years old. And that teacher, and teachers of adolescents are the Unsung Heroes and heroines of our profession. Thats when you plant an abiding, lifelong affection and even addiction to history. One to have historical muses has been sadly, neglected in the American Academy the american university, for a generation. And one of the ideas of our founders, one of whom i will introduce to you in a moment was that something that the h. F. Guggenheim family could go to arrest could do to arrest this malady and reverse it, is support an annual prize for the best work of military history in english during the preceding year. Finish and that is why we are here this evening. History, as written by practitioners of it who have produced works that indicate enlightened research, who write gracefully, who have in the backs of their minds typically an alert and interesting lay reader rather, frankly than other academics. That is what were doing. And i would like, if i may, just briefly to introduce one of the major supporters of this program, a man with whom i went to boarding school 0 or 30 years 20 or 30 years ago, maybe it was 55 years ago [laughter] Something Like that. Before vietnam. And we served in the infantry were you a private lou . Yes. Did you attain Commission Rank at some point . Private e2. Well, thats good. Lou lehrman is a practitioner of history. He is one of our foremost biographers of Abraham Lincoln now working on a new book about lincoln and churchill and we owe him a great debt. I know its a tired cliche but this is a hand who compels a man who compels redefinition of the phrase renaissance man. Would you come up and say a word or two about your support of this program and why you were moved to help us . [applause] thank you general. Andrew roberts members of the jury friends of the guggenheimlehrman military history prize, Peter Lawson Johnston and i hold fast to the ancient truth that all great nations have honored the science and art of military history. From time immemorial. Not least because great nations have been forged in war. Peter and i hope to vindicate this reasonable proposition by rewarding the very best military history books in our own era. Those written first as general bunting just said, in the english language, but published enough in the world. Now, from ancient times until three generations ago, military history was perhaps the queen of the historical sciences. One might mention only a few of the unforget bl war sagas of the ancient past. In modern times sir Winston Churchill, general grant general de gaulle, only a few of the storied names the mere mention of which makes our proposition a reasonable case. So then why now the prize . Why do we do this . We do this not least because the study of military history has, in fact, been purged from many of the faculties and curriculums of the universities, of the great universities of the western world. Now, how did this happen . Perhaps it is explicable by some form of Political Correctness or parochial specialization. Or the armchair unrealism of the faculty lounge even ivory tower snub erie among other related social diseases. Permit me to say that the military history prize is intended to inspire the serious study of war and of its consequences, the object being its restoration to its rightful position among the historical arts and sciences. Such an effort needs no justification. From the emergence of homo sapiens in northeast africa about 75,000 years ago the dna historians and population geneticists now teach us there have been only three perennial institutions of human society; war, trade and religion. Mr. Churchill long ago reminded us that few of the major unresolved issues arising between nations have been settled by little else than war and by its consequences in victory or defeat. None has made the point so well as president lincoln in his last war message to congress of december 6th, 1864. Between the rebels and the union, the unresolved issue was i quote him now distinct, simple and inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war and decided by victory. In a word, the world we inhabit is inscrutable without military history in its deepest and largest understanding. My dear friends, these are but a few of the reasons which now make the military history prize our essential weapon in the struggle to restore balance to the History Departments of our great universities to restore balance and understanding of war and peace in the literate general public and above all to provide wisely for the intellectual and moral formation of our children. And our childrens children. May i now congratulate Peter Lawson Johnston, the farseeing head of the Harry Frank Guggenheim foundation, general Josiah Bunting the inspiration of this very prize and andrew roberts, the distinguished chairman of the jury and of our equally distinguished jurymen and woman. And above all, let us now praise the outstanding finalists nominated for the Second Annual military history prize. The it is an honor to be among you. Thank you very much. [applause] you know, the terrible, terribly vulgar phrase takeaway, what is the takeaway . Our speaker just mentioned heres one sense to take away from the pell to nice war. Ambassadors are speaking in the Spartan Assembly before the war. You have not yet begun to consider what sorts of people are these athenians whom you may have to fight. Is that a deathless piece of advice to carry around in your head for the rest of your lives . Our wonderful [inaudible] in this process, in this procedure, in this, i think, noble endeavor is the New York Historical society who for recent years has been chaired by roger hertogk himself a great student of history. A renaissance man in every way that you can consider renaissance men. And he has been most generous and helpful host in the process of establishing this prize and gatherings such as this evenings. Roger, would you join us at the podium . [applause] this is tough competition this is a tough act to follow. And all of you on my left its very rare that i find everyone on my left. [laughter] but thank you for coming. So 35 years ago the great historian, barbara tuchman, described what were here this evening to celebrate. She said and i quote books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, science is crippled, the humanities wont exist. Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, the windows on the world, lighthouses erected on the sea of time. End of quote. The great things about books and book prizes is that they honor men and women who by putting important ideas down on paper spread those ideas throughout the world. For that achievement alone, the authors of excellent books should be honored. And since its now the second year of the guggenheimlehrman prize in military history the judges of this award are to be congratulated. Because something important has already been accomplished. People have begun to recognize the significance of history, of military history. But this prize has an additional significance can in my view which i think is especially critical today and will be, sadly, for some time to come. First, and i think lou touched on this, students of our universities need and i believe want to understand more about our history. Our military history. The revolutionary war the civil war, world war i world war ii vietnam war the iraq war. Than theyre getting a chance to learn today in their classes. These subjects, in a way, have been written out of the curriculum at many of our Great Colleges and universities. They need to be written back in. It can only be done with prizes like this and strong and powerful trustees who demand it. Second and equally significant, great books on military history provide our next generation of leaders. Where else will they learn about it . And the general public as well will need to learn about it. An understanding of a sense of purpose, the challenges of heroism and, yes, the sacrifices that it takes to maintain our democratic way of life. Because judging by history, tragically conflict is not going away anytime soon. In 1968 will and ariel durant calculated that in only 270 years out of the prior 3400 had the world been more or less at peace. Think about those numbers. Think about what has happened to the world and then ask yourself, how is it possible that nowadays many tend to think that peace is the natural state of affairs and that conflict is an aberration . They assume that humans, us are primarily ration also that perpetual peace and progress should prevail. Even a brief look at the glance back at the 20th century should disabuse anyone of that notion. One only has to look at the chaotic state of the world today to its this hypothesis to test this high hypothesis. You cant find any proof for perpetual peace for a notion of perpetual peace. The problem is many of our World Leaders now as ever have little idea of what it takes to achieve peace. What it will require and high on this list are active efforts like planning the expenditure of training the expenditure of treasure i apologize and the training and the building of equipping a powerful military establishment. This is why the guggenheimlehrman military history prize is so important. Because it provides a perspective, it provides a context, it contributes to a more or less realisticking awareness of realistic awareness of the constant need to be prepared. In this sense the prize has the noblest of purposes. And so once again, as i i did last year im honored to be with you. To be in the company of my friend Lewis Lehrman cochairman of the indispensable, irreplaceable Gilda Lehrman suit of American History and the great general cy bunting, president of the frank guyingen human guggenheim foundation. Thank you and congratulations. [applause] im happy now to call upon one of the great contemporary practitioners of military and diplomatic and political history, a man who has been celebrated especially in london and new york as perhaps the best historian literally of his generation. His recent biography of napoleon perhaps the celebrated work of biography published in english in the past year or two. Perhaps you will tell us the name of the prize for which you were honored in paris not long ago, but its a great pleasure to welcome the chairman of our panel of judges who will introduce our judges, and then well get on the with the business of communicating to you our final determination as the best author of history military history this year. Andrew roberts. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, im going to introduce the judges very swiftly. Actually, theyre all down on this piece of paper that you have. More importantly im going to introduce the books, and ill do that fairly swiftly as well. Charles burr and cy himself and thor rah frazier, pat lang and ralph peters [inaudible] with the judges. Fortunately, we all got on extremely well and we didnt have any of those kind of exciting moments where people throw fits and dont turn up to the dinners and sort of cry and all of that kind of of thing. In fact, we wound up having very serious and substantial discussion, and we came up with these three fabulous finalists. And so id just like to very swiftly tell you about the opium war by julia lovell which is much more complicated than the simple morality tale about an evil British Empire forcing opium on the innocent chinese empire. [laughter] the chinese actually, produced it in huge quantityies [inaudible] than the british. It was generally thought to be rather good at curing disease. The chinese believed all sorts of things including that crows grew many feet in size because the british fed their corpses to them. Its a very strange and unfamiliar area. In early 19th century china teaching a foreigner chinese was a capital offense. And artillery practice was canceled so as not to disturb silk worms. This is a very very wonderful, very rich very entertaining book. And it is prizing and on occasion quite shocking. In some clashes the chinese had 115 times more soldiers than the british, and still they lost battles. Its a military book, but its one that includes hip pot misses and cannibalism, rat soup locusts, poetry written in praise of lay cheese a jittery irish painter on the run from his wife, an emperor who wrote in vermilion ink and was constantly lied to by all his officials, a military strategy that involved female lepers and chamber pots a magpieworshiping gin b seven trader with only 13 suits of armor i love only there its very important only 13 suits of orrin honor. The old man of the telephone utter victory ands the aweinspiring [inaudible] these are what theyre actually called. Attack monkeys with explosives attached to their backs. Cannon, it was made by a belgian in the bureau of astrolly. An english sea captains skin which was used for the reins of a horse. The thought of suppressing and quelling those from afar. The order of the purple whip and the ancient chinese proverb when youre stuck down a well, someone is bound to throw a rock on your head. La after [laughter] ladies and gentlemen, what a fabulous book that has all of those splendid things in it. David Reynolds Book entitled the long shadow is a very powerful book and indeed, an important book about the First World War and the effect it had on the rest of the century, indeed up to the present day. Impeccable erudition as youd expect from a historian as serious and substantial as reynolds. Immense psychological hardship. Scholarship. He doesnt just criticize the, he doesnt just go into the horrors of the First World War he also points out the effect its had on creativity and on science and art and literature. Its a sort of meditation on the First World War. And in its chapters on remembrance and refraction, it makes one think. And he really does go into every aspect of the First World War. And i particularly was interested as i was going to be because David Reynolds is a great churchillian historian on effect that it had on Winston Churchill and allied strategy in the Second World War. So its really a lifetimes contribution because he has been hiking and working thinking and working on these questions for many many years. And it shows in this, in this really remarkable work of erudition. Alexander watsons ring of steel, its this, too, is a fabulous book. I mean, any one of these three all of the judges, pretty much all of us said that we would be happy with anyone that won this prize. Alexander watsons book reminded me as a britton how incredibly close we came in the First World War to losing it. At the start of 1918 when one thinks that russia was out of the war altogether, the french. Were mutinying the american armies hadnt, hadnt been with involved, hadnt got involved yet, there was unrestrict ared uboats unrestricted uboat warfare. The germans had transferred 48 divisions from the east. The 18th army, german 18th army had three million shells. By time they launched the operation in the spring offensive and were able to overrun 3100 square miles and capture 75,000 british troops and 1300 guns and get to within seven miles of [inaudible] by the may of that year, the germans reached the [inaudible] they were 45 miles from paris. And on the 27th of may, 1918, they took 17 miles in one day which is a record for the western front. What watson manages to do is to show how through lewden do haves what he calls strategic bankruptcy the germans managed by the 3th of august by the 8th of august to be at the point of total collapse with desertions and the rest. And he also does a very useful thing in politics, it strikes me, which is to explode the [inaudible] the nazi concept that the home front in some way was responsible for letting down the german army this thing that hitler went on and on about, of course, in the 1930s. And, in fact, he argues that its the other way around, that the army spread defeatism to the home front which is a fascinating way of looking at it. And one sees it in terms of the well ill leave you to read the book. Its tremendously impressive and powerful. And its full of a strong moral call as well. It denounces the war crimes, the rape of belgium the unrestrict ared sub pa lean warfare submarine warfare, the civilian slave labor that he goes into as well for which there was in the end, only four convictions at the pped of the great war. But this, too, this is a story not just of cruelty and viciousness, its also a story of; love of country love of family and love of ones other fighting member in ones unit. So that, like the opium war and also like the long shadow, has a message which is much more than just a military history message, but actually does extend the sum of Human Knowledge and really talks about human condition which is something that all three previous speakers tonight have pointed out that military history is not just about moving 50 divisions north south, east or west to engage other divisions. Its actually about something that goes to the heart of what it is to be human. So im now going to call upon the three speakers. One of them cant be with us tonight, david rehold in, but reynolds but nonetheless, weve got his voice recorded to read to you. And so theyll all give short readings from their really, truly excellent books. And then after that were going to award the prize. Thank you very much. [applause] first id like to thank the foundation very much for generously flying me out to attend this ceremony from the u. K. Its a great privilege to be here. This extract that ive chosen from the book immediately follows the close of my narration of the first opium war in 1842. So this was a war which was concluded with a punishing treaty dictated by the british and signed that nanjing a city in the southeast of china