Book Award

The Harry M. Ward American Revolution Round Table of Richmond Book Award

Previous Winners:

2023 - Steven Elliott, Surviving the Winters

2022 - Steven Smith, Francis Marion and the Snow's Island Community

2022 - John Ferling, Winning Independence

2021 - Donald F. Johnson, Occupied America

2020 - Seanegan Sculley, Contest for Liberty

2019 - Rod Andrew, General Andrew Pickens

2018 - Larrie Ferreiro, Brothers at Arms

2017 - Nathaniel Philbrick, Valiant Ambition

2016 - Claudio Saunt, West of the Revolution

2015 - Michael Harris, Brandywine

2014 - Mark R. Anderson, The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony

2014 - Andrew O'Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America

The annual book award for any given year will honor a volume published within the previous two years and will be decided by a standing award committee drawn from the membership of the American Revolution Round Table of Richmond with expertise in the subject area.

Suggestions of books for consideration may be submitted to the committee at arrtr.bookaward@gmail.com

Current Committee: Mark Lender (head), David Riggs, Danny Witt

General Considerations:

The annual book award for any given year will honor a volume published within the previous two years (that is, an award for 2014 would honor a book published in 2012 or 2013).  The evaluation criteria will include narrative strength, the thoroughness of the author’s research (mastery of sources), and originality and significance of the author’s contribution to our understanding of the American Revolution.  These factors are embodied in the selection criteria noted below. The annual book award will be decided by a standing award committee drawn from the membership of the American Revolution Round Table of Richmond with expertise in the subject area.

The name of the award will be: The Harry M. Ward American Revolution Round Table of Richmond Book Award.

The award should be national/international in scope, not just open to Virginia authors. 

The Book Award will consist of a suitable plaque or framed certificate and a $200 cash award.

Members of the Richmond Roundtable are applauded and hugely appreciated but are NOT eligible for the competition.

The selection committee shall have the discretion to interpret the criteria broadly, the goal being to select a book best encompassing the interests and values of the ARRT-R. Over time, these criteria may be refined at the suggestion of the committee and with the consent of the membership.

Significantly, the selection committee can also choose to honor books published previous to any given award year. Such “retrospective” awards can be made with or without a usual annual winner.

Specific Criteria:

Award must 1) cover the era of the American Revolution or 2) deal with the impact of the Revolution as a significant and central part of some other study.

1. Submitted books must be non-fiction only.  However, at the discretion of the selection committee, the ARRT-R can recognize works in other genres with particular merit.  (For example, should a work such as a Revolutionary War equivalent of The Killer Angels appear, or should another Kenneth Roberts begin to publish, the committee can recommend a Book Award in addition to a regular award.)
2. Submitted books must be original new work, not a rewrites or later editions of earlier works.  However, a new interpretation of an old issue is allowable.  No reissues of previously published works.
3. A work must have the full scholarly apparatus; i.e., foot/end notes, index, and a bibliography, unless there is an explanation to the contrary. (Some legitimate publishers now limit this sort of thing as a matter of cost.  In this case, there is an explanation including where fully-cited copies of the original manuscripts can be found—usually at a university or historical society library.)
4. A submitted volume should have no more than three co-authors or co-editors.
5. Must be from a commercial publisher, university press, or other recognized and reputable press (e.g., the Virginia Historical Society, or a non-profit press such as the NPS or Mount Vernon Ladies Association); no self published or “vanity press” books.

 The evaluation criteria will include narrative strength, thoroughness of the author’s research, and originality and significance of the author’s contribution to our understanding of the American Revolution.