Overview
The ceremony will mark the 2025 award of the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History, which goes to Keith Lowe for his book Naples 1944: War, Liberation and Chaos.
Endowed by the current Duke of Wellington, the annual Medal is awarded yearly to the best-published work of military history initially written in English, regardless of the author’s nationality. Over 70 entries for the award were submitted.
Professor Michael Clarke, who heads the panel of judges, says:
‘Keith Lowe’s book, Naples 1944: War, Liberation and Chaos is a great achievement of military history writing. The liberation of Naples was only one part of a bigger campaign that was part of a bigger war that was driving to its cataclysmic conclusion in the following year. It is easily ignored, or taken for granted, or just assumed, like so much else in war, to be necessarily "messy". But Keith Lowe’s book presents a microcosm of what total war really is when forces sweep across an ancient city. Naples 1944 is forensic in its approach; the result of many years of scholarly work and understanding of the Neapolitan context in which the liberation took place. Keith Lowe challenges a number of previous assumptions about this phase of the war. He operates in an inter-disciplinary way and puts dramatic new historical material into the public domain.’
At the ceremony, Keith Lowe will reflect on his winning book, and this will be followed by a reception.
About the Duke of Wellington Award Winner
Keith Lowe is a British historian and bestselling author specialising in the Second World War and its aftermath, and is best known for his book, Savage Continent and The Fear and the Freedom (Penguin, 2018). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, who frequently contributes to media and lectures internationally, and is recognised for his meticulously researched studies of post-war Europe
Joining Instructions
This is an in-person event for RUSI Members. If you have any questions regarding this event, please email [email protected].
