Peter Wilson wins 2023 Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History
2023 Award of the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History goes to Peter H Wilson for his book Iron and Blood, published by Penguin Random House.
The Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History is awarded on an annual basis for the best English language writing in the discipline. This year, we had a highly competitive field of 47 entries, which were then whittled down to a strong short-list of six.
Praising Iron and Blood, Professor Michael Clarke, who heads the panel of judges, said:
This is a hugely ambitious book recording and explaining, Germany's rise as a power from the Seventeenth Century to the tragic conflagration and its total defeat in 1945. The book certainly succeeds in its ambition. It doesn't just explain this world-changing phenomenon, but successfully challenges many of the prevailing orthodoxies about 'German militarism'. It reads with the assurance of a lifetime of scholarship and will be the standard source for modern interpretations of Germany's military history for many years to come.
