I am awfully happy to welcome the of plot back thank you. All of you to this gathering and this event. Stephen ambrose once said that hed been struck by how many Army Veterans of the campaign in europe, 19441945, had become teachers. He made the obvious link, which partly needs explication before audience like this but consider the chronology. If you were a 20 year old rifleman in the forest, you were born in 1924. You are now 90, and if you have become a professor or teacher, you probably have left the active practice of your profession around 1975 or 1980, give or take a few years. Your education was underwritten by the g. I. Bill, and yours was a generation hospitable, at the very least, to the study of war and of military history. A successor generation of men and women in college, in the later 1960s and 70s whose experience may or may not have included service in vietnam, people now in their 60s and 70s, have furnished a large cadre of professors, administrators in universities. The majority of them would appear to harbor a positive aversion to the discipline of military history. Interestingly, not in great britain, but in a famous elite universities of our country. This is appalling to me. This is a grain of great in my oyster, and this is why we are here this evening. Their attitude is the human or the humane equivalent of indulging in a version to the study of the causes of cancer because the disease is unpleasant. The reason for the establishment of the guggenheimlehrman prize in military history, frankly, is to call attention to this most regrettable condition. Ironically the national appetite for military history, invariably off campus, is constant and gracious. Sales of serious works of military history continued at extraordinarily high levels. Somehow, however, many of them are condescended you almost automatically by the academic community. We hope this award will be the beginning of a substantial effort to remedy the disease. I cannot help adding that militarys history as a discipline is somehow considered to be quote right wing unquote, or conservative. This is an utterly preposterous way of looking at the discipline, but it is deepseated and it will not be remedied overnight. Here and there our bright rays of hope. You will hear from somebody practitioners of the hope later. John gaddis remarkable programs at yale, Victor Davis Hanson strategic enterprise at stanford, strong programs at ohio state, duke, and other institutions, but not so many. In a few minutes we will hear brief readings from our finalists, candidates for the prize. You may judge for yourself the quality of their understanding and of their writing. I wish particularly this evening to thank roger hertog, chairman emeritus of the host world from the Historical Society, a supporter of such ventures, to whom our debt is very large. I wish to thank the president of the society, whose leadership and reintegration of the Historical Society has been nothing less than stirring in its consequences. I congratulate and thank Peter Lawson Johnston who was here this evening, chairman of the Harry Frank Guggenheim foundation, a veteran of the Second World War whose allegiance to the foundations purposes, the study of the human propensity for violence, aggression and domination has been constant and generous. It is worth noting that our foundations founder, henry guggenheim, was a veteran of both world wars, and served in combat after badgering the Navy Department to allow this, at the age of 55, he was a close friend of many of the military leaders of our country at that time. And, finally, i would like to thank luis lehrman who is here, an old and dear friend from days and pottstown, pennsylvania. Perhaps this is where we can buy our sense of interest and conflict, a distinguished historian himself, a student of abraham lincoln, our countries greatest wartime has been a most generous patron of this enterprise. I would now like to introduce mr. Herzog, whom i mentioned a moment ago you will talk to a little bit about his own interest in this venture. Roger . [applause] tough act to follow. Certainly is a lot taller than i am. Which isnt that hard. So let me say to all, welcome, to this wonderful evening. I do mean wonderful because we are about to inaugurate what i believe will be an enormously important tradition, the annual awarding of the guggenheimlehrman prize in military history. In my view the prize, the idea of the prize, is inspired. It has the potential to do an enormous amount of good, especially at this time. Of course even our best colleges, sad to say, military history is no longer treated as a subject of serious study if it is treated as a study at all. Very few universities today really have courses in military history. Of the top 25 colleges in our country, as defined by the u. S. News and world report, who else could you use . Only three colleges acquire require a survey course on u. S. History, not military history. These are the highest, best schools in america. Undergraduates who want to learn more about the sacrifice men have made in fighting for purposes they believed in have few places to turn. Few places to learn why some conflicts have made for a much better world. Just think of our history, the revolutionary war, the civil war, world war ii. These young men and women, and soon my grandchildren, in some important way and some profound way, are being deprived of their birthright. Learning something more about their country, who we are, why we are here, what are the ideas they created this free people. The man who conceived this prize aimed to remedy this situation, knowing their history, i think they probably will. They are historians of the first order whose careers have fueled in large part their love of country. Josiah bunting, president of the Harry Frank Guggenheim foundation, and louis lerman, cochairman of the board of the guggenheimlehrman institute of American History. Josiah bunting has written six highly acclaimed books and edited a couple others. He is now finishing his major opus, the life of George Catholic marshall, a soldier, general, statesmen, and a great american. Louis lerman, author of the wonderful lincoln at peoria, constitutes half of the dynamic duo that build the irreplaceable, indispensable Gilder Lehrman institute. The other half being Richard Gilder who i dont think is here this evening. Net effect is, the sad fact the fact is, the sad fact is, that most book prize, although not all of them, are little noted nor long remembered. But sometimes a prize sheds a light on the subject of such strategic importance that it helps stimulate interest on the part of a new generation of historians, and equally important lovers of history, both young and old. When Gilder Lehrman craig they Gilder Lehrman prize, the Gilder Lehrman created the lincoln prize, approximately a quarter of a century ago, then the Frederick Douglass prize and the George Washington prize, they attracted formidable, new scholarship about the 16th president , the phenomenon of slavery, the age of the Founding Fathers respectably. I think the same thing will now happen in the muchneeded study of military history your four books are the carriers of civilization. Barbara tough and has written, without books, history is soured, literature is done, science crippled. Without books, the development of civilization would not be possible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, and as the poet said, lighthouses erected on the sea of time. Anything that encourages analysis and understanding of matters of war and peace for generations to come is to be honored. And this is what makes the guggenheimlehrman prize such an important idea. And given what is going on in the world today, it appears we need it more than ever. So in closing im particularly proud as the past chairman of the new york Historical Society worthy Gilder Lehrman archives are housed to be introducing this prize today. So i welcome you all, and look forward to seeing my and your reading list enhanced year after year by the inspired choices of the guggenheimlehrman judges. So i say thank you and welcome to the new york historic will society. [applause] i just whispered to roger that was a beautiful talk. Thank you. I would now like to introduce andrew roberts. This is very much an angloamerican enterprise. Andrew is a brilliant and prolific practitioner of the craft of history, political, diplomatic and military. A member of the board of directors of the foundation. And i call on him who has served admirably for the last year or year and a half as chairman of our panel of judges whose labors have been diligent in long, and these judges have been the beneficiaries of andrews experience as a judge for numerous literary and historical prices that have been written. Is going to introduce each of our judges and then introduce each of our finalists, again, each of whom will be asked to give a short reading from his book. Dr. Roberts. [applause] [laughter] anyone couldve done that, sorry. And the winner is [laughter] going to be announced very shortly. Three of my books have been enterprises and the whole concept is very pretty organized in this way. But who am i to break a noble tradition . And uncertain not going to. And also what better day, what a better day than st. Patricks day to celebrate history, and especially the ancient resemblance that probably when you investigate them closely actually [laughter] my job was to introduce the judges and and possibly distinguished group. Actually probably, nonetheless i do believe it is distinguished because how on earth can we a symbol another group as distinguished as us next year . Obviously as an englishman again, im in favor of a selfperpetuating oligarchy, or even perhaps heredity. I think just like should consider, my son is 16. He doesnt have much to do at the moment. I can see why it shouldnt be handed down through the generations. But nontheless, these are decisions for others to take. So the people who have been deciding this fabulous prize include, as well as si, and a new you americans are not supposed to have an aristocracy, but if youre someone who is an aristocracy of the soul, it is si. You also have katie brewer who is a Brigadier General of course and weakens the authors of things that are written in the program. The other great thing about casey is that he brings a sense of sensibility to what we were discussing and arguing today. Its an emotional side to his presentations. I love that. The fact that he would wear green jacket for the st. Patricks day parade also showed a side which went down very well i thought. Except with me. You have valid code. Sadly he wasnt able to be here today because hes taking elliott cohen. Substantial figures in the army but thats exactly what a military history would do if they were taken here today. David runs the University Buckingham side of the war studies. [inaudible] written a Family History of the tutor government, doesnt get much more military than that. And i have to say if those a little bit unnerving as a military historian to have as one of your judges someone who is quite, theres no other word for it, important as the purpose of the history of war also at oxford. Its a bit like me being bashed on sophie chairman of this thing and hes one of the judges. Im sort of the undersecretary in charge of paper clips. And one of my judges is henry kissinger. Youll understand my problem. And then, of course, the admiral who is recording secretary of princeton. Basically, ladies and gentlemen, it doesnt get better than that, except in my job as chairman, which i have loved. We have three criteria. The first was the evidence of new research. We needed to know that every single one of these books come with well over 100 of them, every single one of the six shortlisted books actually told us something we didnt know already. Its a very, very difficult and incredibly high bar to meet, frankly. But it was met by all six of them. We also wanted to know the books had literary grace. And it makes a lot of sense, it seems to me that this has got to be read as a book, as a work of literature as well as just a simple book of military history. We did not want, and i promise you there were an awful lot of books which said the 34th division in these two have miles northwest to engage the third corps on the xyz. Thats not what we were after. We are after a sense of why that was happening, of who was involved in that, who took the decision, why it mattered and how it fitted into the overall scheme of which ever conflict it was. So literary grace is also important. And the third was, at that, too, was met by all of these fabulous authors. And the third was a contribution to the profession of military history writing and the subjects on, upon which it focuses. It is a terrible, terrible cliche of occasions like this that anyone of these books could have won the prize, but the fact is that that is true of these six books. Out of the well over 100. And i think we did choose the ones that were really outstanding. Every Single Member of the judging panel said that they were happy to have read all of the six books, that in their point where they were not bored by any single moment of them, that these are books that really had a serious, significant effect on their appreciation and understanding of the past. And so in that sense, we were phenomenally impressed, which is it does take a lot of time to do it. Im going to not ask for each of the authors to come up and speak. [inaudible] of course has written the last in his three, trilogy, and im going to ask him to speak no longer than five minutes. Hes going to read from his book. If anybody else goes on for longer than five minutes and im just going to rip up his check. Its as easy as that. So we kick off with rick atkinson, the guns at last light, the war in western europe and then we will go through in alphabetical order to the last of the readings, and in going to come back again. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, andrew. Thank you for being here this evening and for inviting me to be this evening instead of bringing the full doorstop i just brought a page. And this is june 5, 1944. We are off the Southern Coast of england. Across the fleet majestic called the warcry sounded up anchor, and the murky fretful gone from every English Harbour estuary still the great affluent of liberation from dartmouth and weymouth, entangled wakes from the thames past the black deep in the wellbuilt marshes all converging on the whitecapped channel. Nearly 200,000 seamen and merchant mariners occurring 59 convoys came 130,000 soldiers, 2000 tanks and 12,000 vehicles. Mondays early light revealed hundred, corbis, fergus, freighters, ferries, cars, tankers, sub chasers, ships or channel marketing, for cable laying, for smoke making. Ships for refrigerating, towing. From the irish sea the bombardment squadrons rounded land and in pugnacious columns of cruisers, battleshibattleshi ps, destroyers and even some dreadnoughts given a second life like the uss nevada, raised and remade after pearl harbor. The heavy skies lightened and the wind and re coloring to see computer to safire, a luminous rainbow said to be tropical in its colors arent above the wood grain english fields and dappled son with the cliffs of cant turn them into white curtains. Braced against the outskirts of the paper scroll, the road to the aisles down the river as soldiers laying ship rails cheered him on. Nothing brightened the mood more than a port from the bbc broadcast throughout the armada that rome had fallen at last, at long last. Far inland and more than a dozen airfields scattered across england, some 20,000 air shooters and lighter troops also made ready. Soldiers from the British Sixth Airborne Division blackened their faces with teakettle so it and chalked up as me girls and other graffiti on aircraft fuselage is while awaiting the orders to incline. I gave the earth by the runway a good stand, one private reported. Red and green navigation lights twinkled across the downs as the sunset at 10 06 p. M. Singing voices drifted in the booming, punctuated by a roar from paratroopers holding their knives aloft in homicidal resolve. Into the airplane days that he did themselves with the help shove from behind. Mini note on the floor to rest their cumbersome gear and shoots on the seat faces but by the soft coal of cigarette embers and red cabin lights. Engines coughed and caught. The feathered propellers popping as crew chiefs slammed the doors. From the west, the last gleam of a dying day glinted off the aluminum fuselages. Stay light, young soldier murmured, stay on for ever and we will never the light faded and was gone. Deep into the channel 59 darkened convoys went to battle stations as they pushed past the parallel roads of dim buoys, read to starboard, white to port. Small craft struggled in the wind and loft. Men sick, waves washed over tax and lcv log reported. Stove without. Nothing to beat, explosives wet and could not be dried out. Short season snapped toll roads, flooded engine rooms and sloshed through troop compartments. Some helmsmen held to their wheels 30 degrees off true to keep course. Several heating vessels blinkered and one word message. Seasick, seasick, seasick. Down to 10 channels they plunged, to designate for each of the five forces steaming towards fog beaches. Utah, gold, juno, sword. Wakes braided and re braided. The amber or of the full moon rose to the overcast over the port bow and the sea thing as well slip along every home bound for a better world. Alleluia, saying she, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you very much. [applause] describing the collapse of picketts charge on the third of july, 1863, at gettysburg. Pettigrews division gateway, not insulting retreat but in disordered flight. And unlike their counterparts in the philadelphia brigade, alex hays is a man were up and eager for the pursuit. The first delaware sprang over the stone wall en masse and charged with the bayonet on the rebel fugitives, led by their color sergeant with the national flag, as did the color sergeant of the 125th new york 1111th new york carefully cleared out any remaining confederates. Alex hays was in raptures. As a captured rebel officer was being prodded past them, the rebel past contemptuously if this was all the men they had been able to summon. If i had known that this is all you have, i would not have surrendered. Well, snarled transport happily, go back and try it again. A captain in 126 new york picked up a north joe leonard regimental flag which had among the battle honors painted on its bars, harpers ferry. Hayes wanted this black and he wanted to flaunt it for the benefit of the harpers ferries cowards would finally even of their scores with the confederacy on this afternoon. General hayes took this flag in his hand and rode the length of the brigade in its front trading the flag on the ground amid a continuous and deafening cheers of the men, followed by his two surviving staffers, trailing captured rebel banners in the same fashion. At the angle, encountered Alexander Webb with his hat off, very much excited, picking through the bodies of the 72nd pennsylvania in the dark blue uniforms. He was looking for some encouraging victoire in sentiment from hayes, signing hayes, they got through my line. Alex hays was the wrong man to expect sentimentality. He shot back with an ironic grin. Ill be damned if they got through mine. It seems to have occurred that neither webb nor hayes, no anyone else at the moment, that the sharpest irony of all was that the army of northern virginias last hope for a victoires breakthrough expired in flight from the property of Abraham Brian, a free black man, a species of humanity which was by most confederate understandings not even supposed to exist. Lee and his men had given what Porter Alexander later called the best we had in the shop right down to handsome young lieutenants moving bravely and impossibly to the attack singing dixie under waving swords and snapping flags, and ahead in the end not been able to roll the stone to the top of the mountain after all. There was already a sense in the minds of these soldiers on cemetery ridge, standing there as the sun and the hopes of the confederacy together sank towards south mountain. That something had just happened. Something to be engraved in bronze books and on pedestals of granite, something that would make every man who had been there and survived raise a toast like harry the kings happy few on every anniversary of the battle, something which would make this place a name everyone would recognize without explanation. Of the greatest achievement of the great battle, would turn out to be its humblest as well. For Abraham Brian would return to his 12 acres and is whitewashed cottage in barn, and he and his family would live there until he sold the property in 1869. And no one would make them afraid, for the mouth of the lord has spoken it. Thank you. [applause] im going to read a paragraph and a half from the forward of my book, and the last paragraph, 500 pages later. The story of the war effort begins in the 1780s. The British Government was preparing for conflict long before hostilities began in 1793. It continues for over 20 years through the early 1800s when the First Consult and later emperor leading the french people and the many nations he subjugated when he attempted to invade and conquer britain. Begins in 1815 when the nations of europe, united for the last time, to defeat him at waterloo. This is not a book about wholesale suffering and slaughter, starvation and deprivation, which was at the expense of large parts of the population of central germany, russia, spain and portugal. That was not the fate of british citizens rate but it did experience more than 20 years of hard naval and military conflicts and a consequence significant casualties. Civilian britain faced high taxation, social change and domestic unrest as well as long periods of intense political and public anxiety because of the threat of the invasion was dominant. The war against them was more extensive and expensive than that against revolutionary france. In the words of john cook, a Police Action against the revolutionary regime had become a war of national survival. I was brought up from the tradition of spectacular British Naval victories in the french revolutionary war and the assumption that although the war against them was projected, final victory was inevitable. These images and memories are still very much with us. Most people accepting of a very few scholars, who even think about the revolution of the napoleonic wars of today do not realize how vulnerable britain was at this time. Nor are they aware of how many years the soldiers and seamen had to fight, and its civilians to endure to secure the survival of the country. It was a world war in all but name, enveloping europe but also stretching as far as america and india with ferocious fighting right to the finish between two systems of government, each using every possible resource to overcome the other. A british victory was finally achieved but only through radical deficiencies in the nations economic and political life. Major reforms in the civil service, Enormous Growth in the quality and quantity called output by internationalist and farmers, and an acceptance of oppressive taxes by the rich and of military service were left off. Much of this is now forgotten. I go on to compare it to the Second World War. And the last paragraph of the book. The historical headlines have been usurped by napoleon and wellington. The foundations of bigotry of light and adjust capacity of the founders, the expertise of gunsmith in the machine shops, the diligence of shipbuilders at the makers of uniforms can do in carriages and gunpowder. The hard work of those who told in the increasingly efficient agricultural sector, the seamen who ships transported vital stores and food and their crews of ships who provided the means of documentation throughout the year. In term, none of this couldve been achieved without the men who signed and has contracts across tables in government departments. The Civil Servants who drafted documents and did work in basements. And the International Merchants and dealers who traded in the city. They were all needed as much as the tens of thousands of young soldiers and seamen who resisted, survived, and finally overcame the threat from napoleon. [applause] to set the stage for my reading, general petraeus had just taken command of a Multinational Force in iraq. In february 2007, and this is the next day when he and i and our staff go out on patrol into the neighborhoods of baghdad. In a few minutes we arrived at our destination, a newly newly constructed joint secure the station housing an American Infantry Company and its iraqi counterparts. The facility was sparse. Inside a wall of tall glass barriers, a nondescript building housed a small command post. As the outpost lacked Running Water along with many other communities, soldiers relieve themselves in simple plywood outdoor latrines. During our stay a blue of smoke rose above the area as soldiers set fire to a stinking mixture of fuel and human refuse. Soldiers ate food trucked in from camp liberty or maybe with prepackaged field rations. Absent were the numerous morale welfare and recreational opportunities afforded by the larger Forward Operating base, television, movies, fast food outlets, post exchange and occasional concerts. For these soldiers, life and return to the nature of existence in the spring and summer of 2003 when the u. S. Army was newly arrived in iraq. General petraeus and as many others as could fit in the command post to receive a briefing from the commanders. Instead of the hightech monitors present at command post as it was on camp liberty, these Junior Officers used a simple map, radios, and the written law log. They had been in this location for only a week or so, but already there Situational Awareness had increased by several orders of magnitude. Instead of periodic mounted patrols the neighborhood, u. S. And iraqi soldiers were not conducting joint patrols along the street. When they were finished with their patrols, the return to the relative safety of the outpost to rest, maintain their equipment, and plan for future operations. But they remained in the neighborhood as a physical presence to dominate the urban landscape, equally important, the iraqis remain in the area were already seeking them out and providing increasingly useful intelligence. The u. S. Command reported in fact that for the first few days the local inhabitants acted cautiously, unsure of the primacy of the outpost and its defenders. As time went by, neighborhood residents ventured forth to provide information on their tormentors. Vermonts this Company Operated in in italy in the area with an information deficit. Now in just a few short days that scarcity turned into a torrent of intelligence that enabled the soldiers to begin chipping away at the enemy. Progress was slow and uncertain. Time will tell how successful they would be in providing security to and relieving the suffering of the beleaguered iraqis. Our short visit overcome we returned to camp liberty to prepare for our next patrol their to their we boarded ua 60 black hawk helicopters that ferried us to forward opportunity spoken in the southern part of baghdad. After touring the joint u. S. Iraqi base in receiving a patrol briefing we mounted a number of u. S. Armys new stryker combat vehicles, instead of for the religiously mixed neighborhood of dora. Riding in the back of one of the strikers, and im for this journey, i scanned the rooftops and alleyways for snipers. After a short drive we entered the market. Here, too, the evidence of the bloodletting in 2006 was unmistakable. By december of that year door of which was in onethird of all killings in the iraqi capital. We drove past a former Police Station that had been blown up by a suicide car bomb. In the market area, building evidence of rocket and mortar sites, the black inside, a grim reminder of the task before us. If you iraqis in the market moved cautiously aware of the many dangers that jeopardized their lives. As with gaza late, the transit area was largely a ghost town. Alqaeda terrorists, sunni insurgents and shia militiamen had intimidated the population of baghdad into submission. The colorless reports and operational summaries that general petraeus and i read before departing the United States did not do justice to the extent of damage to the iraqi capital, its inhabitants, and the iraqi psyche. The severity of the situation hit us like a ton of bricks. The situation in iraq spiraled rapidly downward and u. S. Forces and their iraqi partners had limited amount of time to reverse the momentum before the clock ran out. The political battles that had attended general petraeus his confirmation hearings in washington receded into the distance as the full magnitude of the task ahead of us became apparent. Thank you. [applause]. Britain had indeed been defeated in america. The morning of october the 17th, 1781, outside yorktown in virginia, but a longterm or mounted the parent has said that this each british lines between the ribbon. The sound of his drum was an oddball again background, to irene. If it had not been for visibility at the redcoat, he might as either way until doomsday. He was followed by an officer holding that the way hanker cheese and proposing negotiations to surrender. The american suddenly ceased. The junior officer in the pennsylvania line at the Continental Army described how when the firing ceased, i thought id never heard a drug equal to it. The most delightful music to us all. They stood in silence as from a distant of last and 200 yards. Im in october 19, the victors were forced to raise for the pleasures they humiliated so before them. Other washington specified the type has surrendered with tape plays at 2 00 precisely, the british and german troops did not appear for another hour. A new uniforms they formed two columns more than a mile long. Board on one side by american troops in the other by french. Numerous spectators from surrounding countryside between the satisfaction. The onlookers greeted the appearance. He was an object of peculiar interest. A surgeon in the Continental Army, jane thatcher, describes how every eye was ready to on the humiliated commander. The point or anxious expectations by pleading illness or pretend even disposition. After some two hours of anticipation, the vanquished british army began to read pants along the hampton road, marching is a slow and solemn step which shoulders up, drums beating and sidesplitting patriotic marches of written in german to. I figured this surrender, the roasters became disorderly and exhibited a search or the conduct. There brings frequently broken. Some of them seem to be a quote liquor. When they entered the surrendered field with their starting pride put to the task of the last act of the draw was played out. They were unable to conceal a nickel to not series exceedingly chagrined when given the order to ground out. According to new jersey officer, the britishers officers in general behave you get with some biting their lips in chatting while others cried. They beat their drums as if they did not care how. Many of the soldiers showed the southern town her throwing down their power as if to determine them useless. After intense ch, on a 1500mile march through the south come a corporal of the 70foot threw down his weapon with such violence that it broke as he shouted, may you never get so good a master. The soldiers enabled them to hide their faces out of shame. It was indeed a humiliation for an army which had begun the war within the exception of the own military prowess. So recuse from their former glory of such miserable plight, eagerness for South Carolina reflected heat did not have depredations and cruelty. [applause] im going to read the opening to the chapter on German Society after the war in europe and in may 1945, many of those who help direct the bombing of germany, were curious to see the destruction for themselves had in bavaria on the 10th of may who had just been captured a american troop. The american official historian, rooftop or was the spot and recorded the twohour interrogation in a small office in the out for grading school in which kerry reflected on why his air force had failed to halt the bombing. He was then historic meeting of the homeric chiefs of the lawyer all around was evidence of the destruction of the National Economic and civil life of a great nation. Doing so he ought to be set back by century as a result. Back he added never happened before in history. Other senior american airmen follows suit. General Andersen Fluvanna captured areas of western germany, landing where he could on mounting a cheap to get a better look at the ruins. The record of the strip from keeping the targets in the country that was recorded a shocking catalogue of destruction. Mines a shimmering show, frankfurt largely ruthless. Looks like pompeii magnesite. Frankfurt, fantastic spec to go. Andersen flew across the industrial basin with the language used to describe the stretch to extremes. Dusseldorf, not defendant goes, all rooms begin to look away. Indescribable. Nothing, nothing is left. His plane ticket back to frame five days later. His diaries breathes a sigh of relief. Escape back to civilization. Sidney basten, direct or bombing operations were to look at hamburg, but shot to the side of People Living in wrecked buildings into which i would not care to venture. Around the same time, the British Government scientist and champion of the Transportation Plan visited the same cities where he witnessed a similar desolate land gave. So much destruction one month for open fields and to get away from the material. Here and there hes someone in sleeping the pavement in front of houses separate no more than a passive rebel. In the eradicated city insert people who looked needed tidy ending the obvious and to check it. He was puzzled by this behavior. However german civilians stuck them hear it a few days later is a mystery. The survival of German Society under the bombs has attracted less attention than british survival during the blitz. If the german population of the major cities had to endure more than four years of increasingly heavy bombardment a war that was evidently lost long before it said. Despite germanys going debilitation, Industrial Production and the food and welfare are maintained until the last week when allied armies were german soil and pounding runs into ruins. The capacity of the state of the natural socialist party to observe this level of punishment and its consequences demonstrated some remarkable thinks the system as well as its harsh characteristics. The question asked by allies before 1945 was typically one will germany crack . For the story and commend the issue needs to be purged the other way around. As for zuckerman, the real issue is how chairman civilian life trapped between remorseless environment and suicidal dictatorship adapted to the materials and psychological pressures of progressive urban obliteration. Thank you. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, i hope that all of those regimes brings home to you the difficulty of the task of judges and they were all so written in a fine writing, also of the original grease or h. And also of the kind of leadership of historical and particularly military historical rating that anyone of them could have won the prize. But the prize in fact after a good discussion, gettysburg, thank you very much. Could you come up and say hello . [applause] also asking to say a few words and none many congratulations. Thank you. I did not expect that. Im in the presence of people that have greatly admired and writing. Q. Strongs hook for waterloo was an important influence. Saul davids writing on the indian mute any and none others said jacks, khartoum, for instance, all of these were important rays of light for me because i believed the American Civil War has been too often written in a provincial way as though the world may have been to us, with us, through s. , i asked him for a man had no parallels to many other National Experience that could shut late when in fact of course the moment we think about it, there are other great conflicts going on at almost the same time. The crimean war fought with virtually the same weapons as the American Civil War. The north italian war of 1859, which truth be told in American Military thinking has hardly played a role at all. The literature available in english is very good and of course the conflicts going on at the same time, the war of 1864, the were not terribly well known because its so difficult to pronounce. Shortly after the close of our own war, the 1866 war between austria and prussia, where the Russian Forces were triumphant and where it is said to huge german empire was founded on the height. All of these offered important in size, parallels, sidelights to the decisionmaking in a gang of american soldiers in the civil war. We did not have our warrior in a vacuum and the writing of many of these historians who are here this evening have provided great insight for me in trying to understand that 18 of soldiers on the ground that gettysburg in 1863. I am not a soldier. I am not a veteran. In that respect, the face of battle in 1975 has such an impact on me. He himself of course that not actually bad in contact. And yet he brought to his understanding of what happened on the battlefield they defend extraordinarily revealing understanding of the nature of combat. Kiki and many others like him, patty griffith, richard holmes, all of these were models that have attempted to follow. But i am not a soldier. I am the son of a soldier. My father was United States aramaeans turgid theaters from korea to vietnam. I am there for at least army brat. I often say that if army brass have a service rep and, colors would be fine. My son is a soldier, Second Lieutenant in command of a tank platoon which im confident is doing nothing to improve the strivings skills. So ive not been a soldier, i have been close to soldiers and in many respects have felt a sympathetic keenness with them and it sat to try to understand them and medics. The combat, which in truth only they can relate, which only they can understand. I chew this because they think is important for the human experience, but also for American History to understand the greatness of those who have been our soldiers. We are not a military people in our history. We are people of the republic. Republics are we supposed to be just a tad suspicious of military applies because military life is hierarchical and republican as democratic. Military life is a sport of kings. We do not have kings. Even in the 19th century there were Many Americans who wondered why we even still had a Standing Army for was this not a relic of european dictatorship. Nevertheless, we have indeed an army, a small one, a professional one, a happy few, a band of brothers. These are the men who stepped forward to become the leaders in our American Civil War, a war which is churchill said on the whole is probably the least avoidable of other great modern conflicts that have been known to this day. They fought without malice in their hearts to each other. On any other occasion, they would have bought each other drinks and buyer. But as soldiers they were loyal to their oats and costs since they proceeded and there is no ability in them. I can only admire them in truth. I am not good enough to polish their boot. But i try to tell their tale because their tale is important to us all. And i will try to go on telling it because i believe we need to hear that tori. I am glad for my fellow finalists in the works that theyve done so moving and so at herbal. I want to say in the words of another great englishman who was himself of course a soldier, had us go forward in our combined strength. Thank you very much. [applause] it would seem to me almost an act of desecration to say anything after your eloquence, eloquent statement. But i would observe this, if there is an academy a residual detestation of her ignorance of her condescension to the study of military history, i wish its perpetrators could have been here. Thank you all very much. Good evening. [applause] [inaudible conversations]