Institute for Advanced Study’s Peter Paret wins $100,000 Pritzker Military Museum prize

Peter Paret, a professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been honored with a $100,000 prize for lifetime achievement in military writing by the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

Paret is the 11th recipient of the award, which recognizes and honors the contributions of a living author for a body of work dedicated to enriching the understanding of military history and affairs. Museum & Library Founder & Chair Jennifer N. Pritzker, a retired colonel in the Illinois National Guard, will formally present Paret with the award at the organization’s annual Liberty Gala on Nov. 4 at the Hilton Chicago.

The author of 14 major publications, including “Clausewitz and the State”, “Imagined Battles: Reflections of War in European Art”, and “An Artist Against the Third Reich”, Paret has gained recognition for research that brings together intellectual history and cultural history in order to better understand the relationship between the military and society more broadly.

“Peter Paret’s work is required reading for anyone interested in history, from amateur historians and active duty military officers seeking advanced degrees, or required for professional military education, to accomplished award winning authors,” said Pritzker. “Paret’s life of military service, scholarship, teaching and writing are rivaled by very few and that is why I chose him, with the help of the screening committee, to be the 2017 Pritzker Literature Award recipient.”

Now in its eleventh year, the Pritzker Literature award was first presented to historian James McPherson in 2007. Past recipients – several of whom served as members of the award’s 2017 screening committee – are Allan Millett, Gerhard Weinberg, Rick Atkinson, Carlo D’Este, Sir Max Hastings, Tim O’Brien, Antony Beevor, David Hackett Fischer and Hew Strachan.

A graduate of London University, Paret is  a member of the American Philosophical Society, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Leo Baeck Institute for German-Jewish History. A recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Medal of the American Philosophical Society and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany, he is a distinguished scholar across subjects, disciplines, and international boundaries. He is also a World War II veteran, having served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater.

“I am very happy to receive this award and most grateful to the distinguished panel of historians of war for choosing me,” Paret said.