I am delighted to report that my most recent book, Arming Mother Nature: the Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism, was awarded the 2014 Paul Birdsall Prize from the American Historical Association. I was able to pick up the prize just after spending an incredible New Year’s eve and day staying in Times Square, the venue of the AHA annual meeting.  It was a special moment for me and I was honored to receive the prize.

Here are the details about the prize, from the AHA website:

The Paul Birdsall Prize in European Military and Strategic History was established in 1985 by a generous gift from Professor Hans Gatzke, who remained anonymous until his death.

The Birdsall Prize is currently awarded biennially for the most important work published in English on European military or strategic history since 1870. Paul Birdsall (d. 1970) was a historian of European diplomatic and military affairs and a foreign service officer.

Hamblin presents an innovative exploration of the ways in which Western military officials and scientists contemplated harnessing natural disasters as weapons of war during the Cold War. Hamblin has crafted an international history of the creation of “catastrophic environmentalism,” the idea that mankind could and should interfere with the environment to achieve strategic ends. The implications of his discoveries will reach beyond the fields of military and strategic history.