HISTORIAN MAX HASTINGS TO RECEIVE 2012 PRITZKER MILITARY LIBRARY LITERATURE AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
$100,000 Award to be Presented at October 27, 2012 Gala in Chicago
Chicago, IL (June 19, 2012) – British Historian Sir Max Hastings has been named the recipient of the 2012 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. The $100,000 honorarium, citation and medallion, sponsored by the Chicago-based Tawani Foundation, will be presented at the Library’s annual Liberty Gala on October 27, 2012. The video announcement was made today at
pritzkermilitarylibrary.org.
“Max Hastings is a gifted narrative historian who has made a significant contribution to the way we understand military conflict from a global perspective,” said Colonel (IL) J.N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired), Founder of the Pritzker Military Library and Tawani Foundation. “He has a keen ability for connecting the plans of world leaders with the battlefield actions of individual soldiers. Perhaps most importantly, his accessible style of writing brings the story of the Citizen Soldier to a broad audience and makes him popular amongst scholars and the casual reader.”
The Pritzker Military Library Literature Award recognizes a living author for a body of work that has profoundly enriched the public understanding of American military history. A national panel of writers and historians – including previous recipients James M. McPherson, Allan R. Millett, Gerhard L. Weinberg, Rick Atkinson, and Carlo D’Este – reviewed and recommended candidates for final selection by the Tawani Foundation Executive Council.
“I am over the moon to be honoured by the Pritzker Library in this way,” said Hastings. “Military history has been a big part of my life, and the Pritzker’s contribution to its study has been enormous. I am so touched that as a British writer, a great American institution should recognise my work. The previous winners are all people for whom I have a huge admiration, and am proud to count as friends and colleagues. I feel as if I was joining a very select club, and simply hope that in the future I will be able to make an ongoing contribution to the Pritzker culture.”
Sir Max Hastings is hailed as an accomplished journalist, writer, historian and editor. He is the author of 23 books, the most recent of which include
Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945,
Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45,
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45 and
Nemesis: The Battle for Japan 1944-45. Hastings has reported on eleven conflicts, including Vietnam and the 1982 South Atlantic war. He was the Editor and later Editor in Chief, of the
Daily Telegraph, for 9 years and of the
Evening Standard for 4 years.
He has received numerous awards, both for his books and journalism, including the Somerset Maugham Prize for
Bomber Command: The Myths and Reality of the Strategic Bombing Offensive, 1939-1945 and Journalist of the Year and Reporter of the Year in the 1982 British Press Awards, and Editor of the Year in 1988. He received the Westminster Medal of the Rusi for his lifetime contribution to military literature in 2008 and the Edgar Wallace Trophy of the London press club in 2009. Today Hastings continues to write for the
Daily Mail and
Financial Times and reviews books for the
Sunday Times and
The New York Review of Books.
Celebrate Sir Max Hastings' acceptance of the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award by joining our librarians and fellow fans of military history for the Pritzker Military Library book group! Click the link on the right to take you to the sign up page.
The Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing was established in 2007. The recipient’s contributions may be academic, non-fiction, fiction, or a combination of any of the three, and his or her work should embody the values of the Pritzker Military Library.
Previous Recipients