John Lyman Book Awards

The John Lyman Book Awards are given annually by the North American Society for Oceanic History to recognise excellence in published books making a major contribution to the study and understanding of maritime and naval history. They are named after Professor John Lyman (1915–1977) of the University of North Carolina.

History

The Lyman Book Awards were inaugurated in 1995 and have honored more than 240 books from more than 80 publishers.

As of 2023, the Committee makes awards in the following eight categories:

  • Maritime and Nautical Archaeology
  • Maritime and Naval Biography and Autobiography
  • Maritime and Naval Reference Works and Published Primary Sources
  • Maritime and Naval Science and Technology
  • North American Maritime History
  • North American Naval History
  • World Maritime History
  • World Naval History

The categories of North American Maritime and North American Naval History were formerly divided among Canadian naval and maritime history, U.S. naval history, and U.S. maritime history. World Maritime History and World Naval History were formerly one category.

Maritime and Nautical Archaeology
Year of Publication Author Book Publisher
2023 Winner Dolores Elkin and Christophe Delaere, eds. Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin America University Press of Florida
2023 Hon. mention Warren Curtis Riess Studying the Princess Carolina: Anatomy of the Ship That Held Up Wall Street Texas A&M University Press
Maritime and Naval Biography and Autobiography
Year Author Book Publisher
1996 Robert Schneller A Quest for Glory: A Biography of Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren Naval Institute Press
1997 Catherine Petroski A Bride's Passage: Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail Northeastern University Press
1998 W. Gillies Ross This Distant and Unsurveyed Country: A Woman's Winter at Baffin Island, 1857-58 McGill-Queen's University Press
1999 Craig Symonds Confederate Admiral: The Life and Wars of Franklin Buchanan Naval Institute Press
2000 Spencer Tucker Andrew Foote: Civil War Admiral on Western Waters Naval Institute Press
2001 John H. Schroeder Matthew Calbraith Perry: Antebellum Sailor and Diplomat Naval Institute Press
2003 Thomas Wildenberg All the Factors of Victory: Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Airpower Brassey's
2004 Kathleen Broome Williams Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea Naval Institute Press
2005 Clark G. Reynolds On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers Naval Institute Press
2006 Mary Malloy Devil on the Deep Blue Sea: The Notorious Career of Captain Samuel Hill of Boston Bullbrier Press
2006 David Curtis Skaggs Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy Naval Institute Press
2006 Hon. mention John H. Schroeder Commodore John Rodgers: Paragon of the Early American Navy University Press of Florida
2007 Stephen Fox Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama Alfred A. Knopf
2008 David Hackett Fischer Champlain's Dream: The Visionary Adventurer Who Made a New World in Canada Simon and Schuster
2011 Elliot Carlson Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway Naval Institute Press
2012 Hon. mention Larry Berman Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell “Bud” Zumwalt, Jr. Harper
2013 Hon. mention Geoffrey L. Rossano, ed. Hero of the Angry Sky: The World War I Diary and Letters of David S. Ingalls, America’s First Naval Ace Ohio University Press
2014 Lloyd J. Matthews General Henry Lockwood of Delaware: Shipmate of Melville, Co-builder of the Naval Academy, Civil War Commander University of Delaware Press
2015 Dennis L. Noble The Sailor’s Homer: The Life and Times of Richard McKenna, Author of The Sand Pebbles Naval Institute Press
2016 Tamara Plakins Thornton Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed American Life University of North Carolina Press
2017 Sheila Johnson Kindred Jane Austen's Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen McGill-Queen's University Press
2017 Hon. mention Stan Grayson A Man for All Oceans: Captain Joshua Slocum and the First Solo Voyage Around the World Tilbury House Publishers/New Bedford Whaling Museum
2019 Winner Anthony J. Connors Went to the Devil: A Yankee Whaler in the Slave Trade University of Massachusetts Press
2019 Hon. mention Phillips Payson O’Brien The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff Dutton
2020 Brett Goodin From Captives to Consuls: Three Sailors in Barbary and Their Self-Making Across the Early American Republic, 1770–1840 Johns Hopkins University Press
2021 Winner Paul Stillwell Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, Jr. Naval Institute Press
2021 Hon. mention John B. Hattendorf & Pelham Boyer, eds. To the Java Sea: Selections from the Diary, Reports, and Letters of Henry E. Eccles, 1940–1942 Naval War College Press
2022 Hon. mention Ranulph Fiennes Shackleton: The Biography Pegasus
2022 Hon. mention Marc Wortman Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power Yale University Press
2023 Winner Robert W. Cherny Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend University of Illinois Press
2023 Hon. mention Margaret Willson Woman, Captain, Rebel: The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain Sourcebooks
Maritime and Naval Reference Works and Published Primary Sources
Year Author Book Publisher
1995 Craig L. Symonds The Naval Institute's Historical Atlas of U.S. Navy Naval Institute Press
1996 Michael J. Crawford, ed. The Naval Documents of the American Revolution, vol. 10 Naval Historical Center
1997 Briton C. Busch & Barry M. Gough, eds. Fur Traders from New England: The Boston Men in the North Pacific, 1787–1800 Arthur H. Clark
1998 Robert Randolph Carter, Harold B. Gill, Jr. & Joanne Young Searching for the Franklin Expedition: The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter Naval Institute Press
1999 Robert J. Cressman The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II Naval Institute Press
2000 David Freeman Canadian Warship Names Vanwell
2001 No award
2002 Michael J. Crawford, ed. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, vol. 3 Naval Historical Center
2003 C. Herbert Gilliland Voyage to a Thousand Cares: Master's Mate Lawrence with the African Squadron, 1844–1846 Naval Institute Press
2004 W.H. Bunting Sea Struck Martha's Vineyard Historical Society
2005 No award
2006 Winner Ralph Sessions The Shipcarvers' Art: Figureheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America Princeton University Press
2006 Hon. mention C. Danial Elliott, with Everett C. Wilkie, Jr. & Richard Ring Maritime History: A Hand-list of the Collection in the John Carter Brown Library (1474 to ca. 1860), revd. ed. John Carter Brown Library
2007 Winner John B. Hattendorf, Editor in Chief The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, 4 vols. Oxford University Press
2007 Hon. mention Deidre Simmons Keepers of the Record: The History of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives McGill-Queen's University Press
2008 Winner George J. Billy & Christine M. Billy Merchant Mariners at War: An Oral History of World War II University Press of Florida
2008 Hon. mention Robert Eric Barde Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island Praeger
2009 Yonah Alexander Terror on the High Seas: From Piracy to Strategic Challenge Praeger Security International
2010 No award
2011 Gordon Miller Voyages: To the New World and Beyond University of Washington Press
2012 Winner Jonathan C. Kinghorn The Atlantic Transport Line, 1881–1931: A History With Details on All Ships McFarland
2012 Hon. mention John D. Broadwater USS Monitor: A Historic Ship Completes its Final Voyage Texas A&M University Press
2013 Hon. mention John A. Wolter, David A. Ranzan, & John J. McDonough, eds. With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden, Jr., 1852–1855 Naval Institute Press
2014 Nancy Shoemaker, ed. Living With Whales: Documents and Oral Histories of Native New England Whaling History University of Massachusetts Press
2015 Mark L. Evans & Roy A. Grossnick United States Naval Aviation 1910–2010 Naval History & Heritage Command
2016 Winner Rebecca Huycke Ellison Daniel O. Killman’s Forty Years Master: A Life in Sail & Steam McFarland
2016 Hon. mention Jun Kimura Archaeology of East Asian Shipbuilding University Press of Florida
2017 Hon. mention Alicia Caporaso, ed. Formation Processes of Maritime Archaeological Landscapes Society for Historical Archaeology/Springer
2018 Hon. mention Anna Gibson Holloway & Jonathan W. White "Our Little Monitor": The Greatest Invention of the Civil War Kent State University Press
2019 Ken W. Sayers U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels: A History and Directory from World War I to Today McFarland
2020 No award
2021 Winner William N. Still & Richard A. Stephenson Shipbuilding in North Carolina, 1688–1918 North Carolina Office of Archives & History
2021 Hon. mention Nathan Lipfert Two Centuries of Maine Shipbuilding: A Visual History Down East Books
2022 Winner Robert G. Allan, with Peter A. Robson Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story Harbour
2022 Hon. mention Russell A. Potter, Regina Koellner, Peter Carney, & Mary Williamson, eds. "May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth": Letters of the Lost Franklin Arctic Expedition McGill-Queen’s University Press
2023 Co-Winners Ryan Tucker Jones & Matt K. Matsuda, eds. The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, vol. 1, The Pacific Ocean to 1800 Cambridge University Press
2023 Co-Winners Anne Perez Hattori & Jane Samson, eds. The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, vol. 2, The Pacific Ocean since 1800 Cambridge University Press
2023 Co-Winners Christine F. Hughes & Charles E. Brodine, Jr., eds. The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, vol. 4, 1814–1815 (Atlantic, Gulf Coast) Naval History & Heritage Command
Maritime and Naval Science, Technology, and Environment
Year Author Book Publisher
1995 Harold D. Langley History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy Johns Hopkins University Press
1997 Thomas R. Heinrich Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism Johns Hopkins University Press
2001 Gary E. Weir An Ocean in Common: American Naval Officers, Scientists, and the Ocean Environment Texas A&M University Press
2002 Steven J. Dick Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830–2000 Cambridge University Press
2002 William H. Roberts Civil War Ironclads Johns Hopkins University Press
2004 Hon. mention Marc Levinson The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger Princeton University Press
2005 Helen M. Rozwadowski Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
2006 Anthony Newpower Iron Men and Tin Fish: The Race to Build a Better Torpedo during World War II Praeger Security International
2007 Larrie D. Ferreiro Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600–1800 MIT Press
2008 Gary Kroll America's Ocean Wilderness: A Cultural History of Twentieth-Century Exploration University Press of Kansas
2008 Hon. mention Russell A. Potter Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818–1875 University of Washington Press
2009 Eric L. Mills The Fluid Envelope of our Planet: How the Study of Ocean Currents Became a Science University of Toronto Press
2010 Susan Casey The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean Anchor
2011 Stephen J. Hornsby Surveyors of Empire: Samuel Holland, J.F.W. Des Barres, and the Making of the Atlantic Neptune McGill-Queen's University Press
2012 Lissa K. Wadewitz The Nature of Borders: Salmon, Boundaries, and Bandits on the Salish Sea University of Washington Press
2013 Kurkpatrick Dorsey Whales and Nations: Environmental Diplomacy on the High Seas University of Washington Press
2014 Winner Norman Friedman Fighting the Great War at Sea: Strategy, Tactics and Technology Naval Institute Press
2014 Hon. mention John Maxtone-Graham SS United States: Red, White, & Blue Riband W.W. Norton
2014 Hon. mention Michael A. Osborne The Emergence of Tropical Medicine in France University of Chicago Press
2015 Wendy van Duivenvoorde Dutch East India Company Shipbuilding: The Archaeological Study of Batavia and Other Seventeenth-Century VOC Ships Texas A&M University Press
2016 Jennifer Hubbard, David J. Wildish, & Robert L. Stephenson A Century of Maritime Science: The St. Andrews Biological Station University of Toronto Press
2016 Hon. mention William Barr, trans. & ed. Emil Bessels’ Polaris: The Chief Scientist's Recollections of the American North Pole Expedition, 1871–1873 University of Calgary Press
2017 Charles W. J. Withers Zero Degrees: Geographies of the Prime Meridien Harvard University Press
2017 Hon. mention Peter Wadhams A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic Oxford University Press
2018 Winner Jason W. Smith To Master the Boundless Sea: The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire University of North Carolina Press
2018 Hon. mention Roger C. Smith, ed. Florida's Lost Galleon: The Emanuel Point Shipwreck University Press of Florida
2019 Winner Margaret E. Schotte Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1500–1800 Johns Hopkins University Press
2019 Hon. mention Richard J. King Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick University of Chicago Press
2020 Larrie Ferreiro Bridging the Seas: The Rise of Naval Architecture in the Industrial Age, 1800–2000 MIT Press
2021 Norman Polmar & Lee J. Mathers Opening the Great Depths: The Bathyscaph Trieste and Pioneers of Undersea Exploration Naval Institute Press
2022 Winner Graham Bell Full Fathom 5000: The Expedition of HMS Challenger and the Strange Animals It Found in the Deep Sea Oxford University Press
2022 Hon. Mention Martin V. Melosi Water in North American Environmental History Routledge
2023 Winner Fynn Holm The Gods of the Sea: Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c. 1600–2019 Cambridge University Press
2023 Hon. mention Laura Trethewey The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World’s Oceans Harper Wave; Goose Lane
North American Maritime History
Year Author Book Publisher
2023 Winner Thomas Blake Earle The Liberty to Take Fish: Atlantic Fisheries and Federal Power in Nineteenth-Century America Cornell University Press
2023 Hon. mention Sean M. Kelley American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644–1865 Yale University Press
North American Naval History
Year Author Book Publisher
2023 Winner Stan Fisher Sustaining the Carrier War: The Deployment of U.S. Naval Air Power to the Pacific Naval Institute Press
2023 Hon. mention Philip Reid A Boston Schooner in the Royal Navy, 1768–1772: Commerce and Conflict in Maritime British America Boydell & Brewer
World Maritime History
Year Author Book Publisher
2023 Winner Lucia Carminati Seeking Bread and Fortune in Port Said: Labor Migration and the Making of the Suez Canal, 1859–1906 University of California Press
World Naval History
Year Author Book Publisher
2023 Winner Jon Wise The Royal Navy and Fishery Protection: From the Fourteenth Century to the Present Seaforth
2023 Hon. mention Sara Caputo Foreign Jack Tars: The British Navy and Transnational Seafarers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Cambridge University Press

Discontinued Categories

Canadian Naval and Maritime History
Year of Publication Author Book Publisher
1995 James Pritchard Anatomy of a Naval Disaster: The 1746 French Expedition to North America McGill-Queen's University Press
1996 Michael L. Hadley, Rob Huebert, & Fred W. Crickard, eds. A Nation's Navy: In Quest of Canadian Naval Identity McGill Queen's University Press
1997 Peter E. Pope The Many Landfalls of John Cabot University of Toronto Press
1998 Robert Malcomson Lords of the Lake: The Naval War on Lake Ontario, 1812–1814 Robin Brass Studio
1999 James P. Delgado Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the Northwest Passage Checkmark Books
2000 Arnold Hague Allied Convoy System, 1939–1945 Vanwell; Chatham; Naval Institute Press
2001 Robert Malcomson Warships of the Great Lakes, 1754–1834 Chatham; Naval Institute Press
2002 John Griffith Armstrong The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy University of British Columbia Press
2003 Julian Gywn Frigates and Foremasts: The North American Squadron in Nova Scotia Waters, 1745–1815 University of British Columbia Press
2004 Winner Peter E. Pope Fish into Wine: The Newfoundland Plantation in the Seventeenth Century University of North Carolina Press
2004 Hon. mention Fraser M. McKee "Sink all the shipping there": The Wartime Loss of Canada's Merchant Ships and Fishing Schooners Vanwell
2005 Winner Stuart E. Jenness The Making of an Explorer: George Hubert Wilkins and the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913–1916 McGill-Queen's University Press
2005 Hon. mention Jonathan R. Dull The French Navy and the Seven Years' War University of Nebraska Press
2006 Winner Jennifer M. Hubbard A Science on the Scales: The Rise of Canadian Atlantic Fisheries Biology, 1898–1939 University of Toronto Press
2006 Hon. mention Barry Gough Through Water, Ice and Fire: Schooner Nancy of the War of 1812 Dundurn
2007 Barry Gough Fortune's River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America Harbour
2008 Winner Robert Malcomson Capital in Flames: The American Attack on York, 1813 Robin Brass Studio; Naval Institute Press
2008 Hon. mention Freeman M. Tovell At the Far Reaches of Empire: The Life of Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra University British Columbia Press
2009 Aaron Plamondon The Politics of Procurement: Military Acquisitions in Canada and the Sea King Helicopter University of Chicago Press
2010 No award
2011 James S. Pritchard A Bridge of Ships: Canadian Shipbuilding During the Second World War McGill-Queen’s University Press
2012 Winner Nicholas Tracy A Two-Edged Sword: The Navy As an Instrument of Canadian Foreign Policy McGill-Queen’s University Press
2012 Hon. mention Barry Gough Juan de Fuca’s Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams Harbour
2013 John English Ice and Water: Politics, Peoples, and the Arctic Council Allen Lane
2014 Winner Gordon W. Smith, ed. by P. Whitney Lackenbauer A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North: Terrestrial Sovereignty, 1870–1939 University of Calgary Press
2014 Hon. mention Donald Barry, Bob Applebaum & Earl Wiseman Fishing for a Solution: Canada's Fisheries Relations with the European Union, 1977–2013 University of Calgary Press
2015 Glen M. Stein Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition McFarland
2016 Joel Zemel Scapegoat, The Extraordinary Legal Proceedings Following the 1917 Halifax Explosion New World
2017 Jeffers Lennox Homelands and Empire: Indigenous Spaces, Imperial Fictions, and Competition for Territory in Northeast North America, 1690–1763 University of Toronto Press
2018 Michael Palin Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time Random House Canada
2019 John M. MacFarlane & Lynn J. Salmon Around the World in a Dugout Canoe: The Untold Story of Captain John Voss and the Tilikum Harbour
2020 No award
2021 Barry Gough Possessing Meares Island: A Historian's Journey into the Past of Clayoquot Sound Harbour
U.S. Maritime History
Year Author Book Publisher
1995 William C. Fleetwood, Jr. Tidecraft: The Boats of South Carolina, Georgia, and Northeastern Florida, 1550–1950 WBG Marine Press
1996 Wayne M. O'Leary Maine Sea Fisheries: The Rise and Fall of a Native Industry, 1830–1890 Northeastern University Press
1997 W. Jeffrey Bolster Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail Harvard University Press
1998 Benjamin W. Labaree, William M. Fowler, Jr., John Hattendorf, Jeffrey J. Safford,Edward W. Sloan, & Andrew German America and the Sea: A Maritime History Mystic Seaport Museum
1999 Charles R. Schultz Forty-Niners 'Round the Horn University of South Carolina Press
1999 Hon. mention Alexander Boyd Hawes Off Soundings: Aspects of the Maritime History of Rhode Island Posterity Press
2000 Lisa Norling Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720–1870 University of North Carolina Press
2000 Hon. mention Ralph Linwood Snow & Douglas K. Lee A Shipyard in Maine: Percy & Small and the Great Schooners Tilbury House/Maine Maritime Museum
2001 Nicholas Dean Snow Squall: The Last American Clipper Ship Tilbury House/Maine Maritime Museum
2002 Wade G. Dudley Splintering the Wooden Wall Naval Institute Press
2003 ALex R. Larzelere The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story Naval Institute Press
2004 Winner Paul A. Gilje Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution University of Pennsylvania Press
2004 Hon. mention James A. McMillan The Final Victims: Foreign Slave Trade to North America, 1783–1810 University of South Carolina Press
2005 Winner Peter L. Bernstein Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation W.W. Norton
2005 Hon. mention Edwin L. Dunbaugh New England Steamship Company: Long Island Sound Night Boats in the Twentieth Century University Press of Florida
2006 Winner Joshua M. Smith Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783–1820 University Press of Florida
2006 Hon. mention Eric Robert Taylor If We Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade Louisiana State University Press
2007 Eric Jay Dolin Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America W.W. Norton
2007 Donald G. Shomette Shipwrecks, Sea Raiders, and Maritime Disasters along the Delmarva Coast, 1632–2004 Johns Hopkins University Press
2008 William E. Lass Navigating the Missouri: Steamboating on Nature's Highway, 1819–1935 Arthur H. Clark
2008 Frances F. Dunwell The Hudson: America's River Columbia University Press
2009 John R. Bockstoce Furs and Frontiers in the Far North: The Contest among Native and Foreign Nations for the Bering Strait Fur Trade Yale University Press
2010 William S. Dudley Maritime Maryland: A History Johns Hopkins University Press
2011 William Michael Morgan Pacific Gibraltar: U.S.-Japanese Rivalry over the Annexation of Hawai'i, 1885–1898 Naval Institute Press
2012 Winner W. Jeffrey Bolster The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
2012 Hon. mention James P. Delgado Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine: Iron, Guns and Pearls Texas A&M University Press
2013 Winner David Igler The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush Oxford University Press
2013 Hon. mention Jennifer Schell "A Bold and Hardy Race of Men”: The Lives and Literature of American Whalemen University of Massachusetts Press
2013 Hon. mention Denver Brunsman The Evil Necessity: British Naval Impressment in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic University of Virginia Press
2014 Winner Brian Rouleau With Sails Whitening Every Sea: Mariners and the Making of an American Maritime Empire Cornell University Press
2014 Hon. mention Catherine Cangany Frontier Seaport: Detroit's Transformation into an Atlantic Entrepôt University of Chicago Press
2014 Hon. mention Dane A. Morrison True Yankees: The South Seas and The Discovery of American Identity Johns Hopkins University Press
2015 Winner Faye M. Kert Privateering: Patriots and Profits in the War of 1812 Johns Hopkins University Press
2015 Hon. mention Mark G. Hanna Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740 University of North Carolina Press
2015 Hon. mention Joshua L. Reid The Sea is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs Yale University Press
2016 Winner Donald Grady Shomette Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast, 1775–1783 Schiffer
2016 Hon. mention Lee Van Der Voo The Fish Market: Inside the Big-Money Battle for the Ocean and Your Dinner Plate St. Martin's Press
2017 Winner S. Max Edelson The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America Before Independence Harvard University Press
2017 Hon. mention William M. Fowler, Jr. Steam Titans: Cunard, Collins, and the Epic Battle for Commerce on the North Atlantic Bloomsbury
2017 Hon. mention Robert P. Watson The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the American Revolution Da Capo Press
2018 Winner Matthew R. Bahar Storm of the Sea: Indians & Empires in the Atlantic's Age of Sail Oxford University Press
2018 Hon. mention Matthew McKenzie Breaking the Banks: Representations and Realities in New England Fisheries, 1866–1966 University of Massachusetts Press
2019 Winner Nancy Shoemaker Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles: Americans in Nineteenth-Century Fiji Cornell University Press
2019 Hon. mention James M. Lindgren Preserving Maritime America: A Cultural History of the Nation's Great Maritime Museums University of Massachusetts Press
2020 Winner Jamin Wells Shipwrecked: Coastal Disasters and the Making of the American Beach University of North Carolina Press
2020 Hon. mention Colin J. Davis Contested and Dangerous Seas: North Atlantic Fishermen, Their Wives, Unions, and the Politics of Exclusion University of Massachusetts Press
2021 Winner Hannah Farber Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding University of North Carolina Press/Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
2021 Hon. mention Timothy D. Walker, ed. Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railway University of Massachusetts Press
2022 Winner Gregg Andrews Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis 1875–1930 Louisiana State University Press
2022 Hon. mention Jane Hooper Yankees in the Indian Ocean: American Commerce and Whaling, 1786–1860 Ohio University Press
2022 Hon. mention Joshua M. Smith Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812 University of Massachusetts Press
U.S. Naval History
Year Author Book Publisher
1995 Charles Dana Gibson & E. Kay Gibson Assault and Logistics: Union Army Coastal and River Operations, 1861–1866 and
Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Union Army, 1861–1868 		Ensign Press
1995 Jeffery G. Barlow Revolt of the Admirals: The Fight for Naval Aviation, 1945–1950 Naval Historical Center
1996 Malcolm Muir Black Shoes and Blue Water: Surface Warfare in the United States Navy, 1945–1975 Naval Historical Center
1997 David Curtis Skaggs & Gerard T. Altoff A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813 Naval Institute Press
1998 Jack Sweetman, ed. Great American Naval Battles Naval Institute Press
2000 William Henry Flayhart III The American Line, 1871–1902 W.W. Norton
2001 Kathleen Broome Williams Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the U.S. Navy in World War II Naval Institute Press
2002 Mitchell B. Lerner The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign Policy University Press of Kansas
2003 Jack Friend West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay Naval Institute Press
2004 Winner Michael J. Bennett Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War University of North Carolina Press
2004 Hon. mention R. Blake Dunnavent Brown Water Warfare: The U.S. Navy in Riverine Warfare and the Emergence of Tactical Doctrine, 1775–1970 University Press of Florida
2004 Hon. mention John Darrell Sherwood Afterburner: Naval Aviation and the Vietnam War New York University Press
2005 Winner Jonathan Parshall & Anthony Tully Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway Potomac
2005 Hon. mention Craig L. Symonds Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History Oxford University Press
2006 Winner William N. Still, Jr. Crisis at Sea: The U.S. Navy in European Waters in World War I University Press of Florida
2006 Hon. mention James D. Hornfischer Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors Bantam
2007 Lisle A. Rose Power at Sea vol. 1, The Age of Navalism, 1890–1918; vol. 2, The Breaking Storm, 1919–1945; vol. 3, A Violent Peace, 1946–2006 University of Missouri Press
2008 Winner Craig L. Symonds Lincoln and His Admirals Oxford University Press
2008 Hon. mention Howard J. Fuller Clad in Iron: The American Civil War and the Challenge of British Naval Power Praeger Security International
2008 Hon. mention John T. Kuehn Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet that Defeated the Japanese Naval Institute Press
2009 William R. Braisted Diplomats in Blue: U.S. Naval Officers in China, 1922–1933 University Press of Florida
2010 Winner Albert A. Nofi To Train The Fleet For War: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems, 1923–1940 U.S. Naval War College Press
2011 Hon. mention Spencer C. Tucker, ed. The Civil War Naval Encyclopedia ABC-CLIO
2012 Winner David Rigby Allied Master Strategists: The Combined Chiefs of Staff in World War II Naval Institute Press
2012 Hon. mention Robert Shenk America's Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919–1923 Naval Institute Press
2013 Winner Thomas Wildenberg Billy Mitchell's War with the Navy: The Interwar Rivalry over Air Power Naval Institute Press [2014]
2013 Hon. mention Matthew Taylor Raffety The Republic Afloat: Law, Honor, and Citizenship in Maritime America University of Chicago Press
2014 Winner David J. Bercuson & Holger Herwig Long Night of the Tankers: Hitler's War Against Caribbean Oil University of Calgary Press
2014 Hon. mention Kevin J. Crisman, ed. Coffins of the Brave: Lake Shipwrecks of the War of 1812 Texas A&M University Press
2015 John Darrell Sherwood War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965–1968 Naval History & Heritage Command
2016 Winner Paul E. Pedisich Congress Buys a Navy: Politics, Economics, and the Rise of American Naval Power, 1881–1921 Naval Institute Press
2016 Hon. mention Lisle A. Rose Seas, Skies, and Submarines: America's Sailors in the Great War University of Missouri Press
2017 Winner Gary J. Ohls American Amphibious Warfare: The Roots of Tradition to 1865 Naval Institute Press
2017 Hon. mention Donald M. Kehn, Jr. In the Highest Degree Tragic: The Sacrifice of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet in the East Indies during World War II University of Nebraska Press
2018 Winner Christopher McKee Ungentle Goodnights: Life in a Home for Elderly and Disabled Naval Sailors and Marines and the Perilous Seafaring Careers That Brought Them There Naval Institute Press
2018 Hon. mention Scott Mobley Progressive in Navy Blue: Maritime Strategy, American Empire, and the Transformation of U.S. Naval Identity, 1873–1898 Naval Institute Press
2018 Hon. mention William N. Still, Jr. Victory Without Peace: The United States Navy in European Waters, 1919–1924 Naval Institute Press
2019 Winner Benjamin Armstrong Small Boats and Daring Men: Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy University of Oklahoma Press
2019 Hon. mention Ryan D. Wadle Selling Sea Power: Public Relations and the U.S. Navy, 1917–1941 University of Oklahoma Press
2020 Winner Thomas Heinrich Warship Builders: An Industrial History of U.S. Navy Ship-building, 1922–1945 Naval Institute Press
2020 Hon. mention John B. Hattendorf & William P. Leeman, eds. Forging the Trident: Theodore Roosevelt and the United States Navy Naval Institute Press
2021 Winner Michael Bonner & Peter McCord The Union Blockade in the American Civil War, A Reassessment University of Tennessee Press
2021 Hon. mention Claude Berube On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era University of Alabama Press
2021 Hon. mention Edward J. Marolda Admirals Under Fire: The US Navy and the Vietnam War Texas Tech University Press
2022 Winner Thomas Sheppard Commanding Petty Despots: The American Navy in the New Republic Naval Institute Press
2022 Hon. mention Trent Hone Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific Naval Institute Press
2022 Hon. mention Michael A. Verney A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic University of Chicago Press
World Naval and Maritime History
Year Author Book Publisher
2021 Winner Nicholas A. Lambert The War Lords and the Gallipoli Disaster: How Globalized Trade Led Britain to its Worst Defeat of the First World War Oxford University Press
2021 Hon. mention Dane A. Morrison Eastward of Good Hope: Early America in a Dangerous World Johns Hopkins University Press
2022 Winner Ryan Tucker Jones Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling University of Chicago Press
2022 Hon. mention Simcha Jacobovici & Sean Kingsley Enslaved: The Sunken History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Pegasus

See also