The Society for Military History is a United States-based international organization of scholars who research, write, and teach military history of all time periods and places. It includes Naval history, air power history, and studies of technology, ideas, and homefronts. It publishes the quarterly refereed Journal of Military History.
An annual meeting is held every year. Recent meetings have been held in Frederick, Maryland, from April 19–22, 2007; Ogden, Utah, from April 17–19, 2008; Murfreesboro, Tennessee 2–5 April 2009; Lexington, Virginia 20–23 May 2010; Cantigny First Division Foundation, Lisle, IL 9–12 June 2011 with the theme "Ways of War"; Army Historical Foundation, Arlington, VA 10–13 May 2012 with the theme "The Politics of War"; New Orleans, LA 14–17 March 2013 with the theme "War, Society and Remembrance"; Kansas City, MO April 3–6, 2014 with the theme “Transformational Conflicts: War and its Legacy Through History” The 82nd Annual Meeting had the theme "Conflict and Commemoration: The Influence of War on Society" and was held on April 9–12, 2015 in Montgomery, Alabama.
83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Military History with the theme “Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries” was scheduled to be held April 14–17, 2016 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
The Society also sponsors sessions on military topics at the annual Northern Great Plains History Conference.
The society was established in 1933 as the American Military History Foundation, renamed in 1939 the American Military Institute, and renamed again in 1990 as the Society for Military History. It has over 2,300 members including many prominent scholars, soldiers, and citizens interested in military history. Membership is open to anyone and includes a subscription to the journal.
Officers (as of 2014) are:
President Dr. Gregory J. W. Urwin
Vice President Dr. Bill Allison
Executive Director Dr. Robert H. Berlin
Treasurer Dr. Graham A. Cosmas
Journal Editor Dr. Bruce Vandervort
Recording Secretary & Photographer Thomas Morgan
Webmaster & Newsletter Editor Dr. Kurt Hackemer
Archivist Paul A. Thomsen
Dennis Showalter
Carol Reardon
Theodore Ropp
Jeffrey Grey
Roy K. Flint
The Samuel Eliot Morison Prize recognizes not any one specific achievement, but a body of contributions in the field of military history, stretching over time and showing a range of scholarly work contributing significantly to the field. Recent winners include:
Conrad C. Crane, Army Heritage and Education Center, United States Army War College, 2016
Joseph T. Glatthaar, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2015
Rick Atkinson, Washington, DC, 2014
Ira D. Gruber, Rice University, 2013
Ronald H. Spector, The George Washington University, 2012
Gerhard Weinberg, University of North Carolina, 2011
Peter Maslowski, 2010
Richard Kohn, 2009
Jeremy Black, 2008
James M. McPherson, 2007
Robert Doughty, 2006
Dennis Showalter, 2005
Allan R. Millett, 2004
Edward J. Drea, 2003
John Shy, 2002
Richard Overy, 2001
David M. Glantz, 2000
Geoffrey N. Parker, 1999
Stephen E. Ambrose, 1998
Robert M. Utley, 1997
John Keegan, 1996
Martin Blumenson, 1995
The Society's Distinguished Book Awards recognize the best books written in English on military history, broadly conceived.
Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone, Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle
Tonio Andrade, The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History
Laila Parsons, The Commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence, 1914-1948
Michael Livingston and Kelly DeVries, editors. The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook
David L. Preston, Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution
Pierre Razoux, The Iran-Iraq War
Paul Robinson, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich: Supreme Commander of the Russian Army
David T. Zabecki, editor. Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History
Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire
Alexander Watson, Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914-1918
Michael V. Leggiere, Blucher: Scourge of Napoleon
Samuel J. Watson, Jackson's Sword: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1810-1821 and Peacekeepers and Conquerors: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1821-1846
Geoffrey Parker, War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century
George W. Gawrych, The Young Ataturk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey
Spencer C. Tucker, editor, American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection
Richard S. Faulkner, School of Hard Knocks: Combat Leadership in the American Expeditionary Forces
Robert M. Citino, The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943
Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin’s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov
Clayton R. Newell and Charles R. Shrader, Of Duty Well and Faithfully Done: A History of the Regular Army in the Civil War
John Sloan Brown, Kevlar Legions: The Transformation of the U.S. Army, 1989-2005
Mark Peattie, Edward Drea, and Hans van de Ven (eds.), The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945
Mungo Melvin, Manstein: Hitler's Greatest General
Steven E. Clay, US Army Order of Battle 1919-1941 (4 vols.)
Chad L. Williams, Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era
Peter H. Wilson, The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy
John MacFarlane, Triquet’s Cross: A Study of Military Heroism
Clifford J. Rogers, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology
Daniel E. Sutherland, A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War
Edward J. Drea, Japan’s Imperial Army: Its Rise and Fall, 1853-1945
J.P. Harris, Douglas Haig and the First World War
Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars
Ingo Trauschweizer, The Cold War U.S. Army: Building Deterrence for Limited War.
Jamel Ostwald, Vauban Under Siege: Engineering Efficiency and Martial Vigor in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Andy Wiest, Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN.
Philip Sabin, Hans van Wees, and Michael Whitby, eds. The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare.
Jon Latimer, 1812: War with America
John Lawrence Tone, War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895-1898
Martha Hannah, Your Death Would Be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War.
Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social and Military History
John Grenier, The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607-1814.
Robert A. Doughty, Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War.
Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus.
Peter Karsten, ed. Encyclopedia of War and American Society. 3 vols.
H. P. Willmott, The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action
George Satterfield, Princes, Posts and Partisans: The Army of Louis XIV and Partisan Warfare in the Netherlands (1673-1678)
Steven E. Woodworth and Kenneth J. Winkle, Atlas of the Civil War
Colin White, ed., Horatio Nelson, The New Letters
Edward M. Coffman, The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941
Robert M. Citino, Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare
James T. Controvich, United States Army Unit and Organizational Histories: A Bibliography
George C. Rable, Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!
Terry Copp, Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy
Joshua Brown, ed., A Good Idea of Hell: Letters from a Chasseur a Pied
Michael J. Crawford, ed., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History: Volume III 1814-1815
Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
Hew Strachan, The First World War. Volume I: To Arms
Stuart Hills, By Tank Into Normandy: A Memoir of the Campaign in North-West Europe From D-Day to VE Day
David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political and Military History (3 vol)
Mark Stoler, Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliances, and U.S. Strategy in World War II
Ronald H. Spector, At War At Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century
Robert H. Ferrell, editor, for William S. Triplet, A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne, A Colonel in the Armored Divisions, and In the Philippines and Okinawa
Geoffrey P. Megargee (2000): Inside Hitler's High Command (2000)
