Top Army award given to First World War book by Goldsmiths academic

A book exploring the First World War from a German and Austro-Hungarian perspective written by a Goldsmiths academic has scooped a further prestigious prize.

Professor Alexander Watson’s 'Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914-1918' has won the British Army Military Book of the Year.

The award is the latest in a string of accolades given to the work by the Professor of History – including the Wolfson History Prize awarded earlier this year.

Professor Watson was due to receive his prize on 4 November at the Prince Consort’s Library, Aldershot. 

Speaking ahead of the ceremony, Professor Watson said: “I am utterly thrilled that Ring of Steel has been selected as the British Army Military Book of the Year.  The shortlist was full of excellent books, and it is a huge honour to be chosen." 

The British Army Military Book of the Year is an annual award now in its 8th year. Past winners include Antony Beevor for Stalingrad and Paddy Ashdown for A Brilliant Little Operation.

The award given in the lead-up to Remembrance Day is of note because it is peer-reviewed, with the six-strong shortlist compiled on the basis of how well the works were reviewed by the author’s peers in journals and newspapers. 

The final judging is then undertaken anonymously with 14 Army personnel scoring the six works with the points then merged to produce the result.

Ring of Steel garnered 64 votes ahead of The Good War by Jack Fairweather, with 62 votes, and Tim Clayton’s Waterloo with 58 votes. 

Professor Watson wrote Ring of Steel to offer a view different from the Anglocentrism of many of the recent British commemorations of the First World War.

He said: “Ring of Steel tells the war from the viewpoints of its instigators and losers, Germany and Austria-Hungary. 

“It exposes truth that are simply not known in this country – they were the underdogs, and the extraordinary sacrifice and suffering undergone by their peoples in the conflict set them on the path to the later twentieth century’s horrors of totalitarian dictatorship, renewed conflict and genocide.”

During extensive archival research Professor Watson, 36, spent two years in Poland as well as time in Germany and Austria.

Professor Watson has previously also paid tribute to Goldsmiths, saying: “I joined Goldsmiths in the last year of writing the book and I received huge support from my colleagues in the History Department.”

Ring of Steel has been awarded the 2015 Wolfson History Prize, the 2014 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History and the Society for Military History’s 2015 Distinguished Book Award. It was also named the Sunday Times 2014 History Book of the Year. Professor Watson’s first book Enduring the Great War won the Fraenkel Prize.