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