{{Short description|American historian}} {{Infobox person | name = Craig L. Symonds | image = Dr. Craig Symonds at The Mariners Museum Newport News (VA) 2012 (8080270959).jpg | image_size = | caption = Symonds in 2012 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|12|31}} | birth_place =[[Long Beach, California]], U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | known_for = | works = ''Lincoln and His Admirals''<br />''[[Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings]]'' | occupation = | awards = [[Lincoln Prize]] for ''Lincoln and His Admirals''<br/>2015 recipient of the [[Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature]] }}
'''Craig Lee Symonds''' (born December 31, 1946) is an American naval historian. He was the Distinguished Visiting [[Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History]] from 2017 to 2020 at the [[Naval War College]] in [[Newport, Rhode Island]]. He is also professor emeritus at the [[United States Naval Academy]], where he served as chairman of the history department. He is a distinguished historian of the [[American Civil War]], [[World War II]], and maritime history. His book ''Lincoln and His Admirals'' won the [[Lincoln Prize]]. His book ''[[Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings]]'' was the 2015 recipient of the [[Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature]], and his book ''Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay'' won the Gilder-Lehrman Military History prize. In 2023, he was awarded the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.<ref>[https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/pritzker-military-museum-library-bestows-its-literature-award-lifetime-achievement-military-writing Pritzker Military Museum & Library]</ref>
==Early life and education== The son of Lee and Virginia Symonds, Craig Symonds attended [[Anaheim High School]] in [[Anaheim, California]] and then the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA), where he earned his [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in 1967. Going on to graduate work, he obtained his [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in history at the [[University of Florida]] in 1969 with a thesis on "The defense of the southwestern frontier, 1784–1794: a study in governmental relations." He married Marylou Hayden on 17 January 1969 and the couple had one son. In 1971, Symonds joined the [[United States Naval Reserve]], serving for three years until 1974 and rising to the grade of [[Lieutenant]]. While in the Navy, he served on the staff and faculty of the [[Naval War College]]. On his release from active duty, he returned to his graduate studies in history at the [[University of Florida]], where he obtained his [[Ph.D.]] in 1976 under the tutelage of Professor [[John K. Mahon]] with a dissertation on "Navalists and antinavalists: the naval policy debate in the United States, 1785–1827."
==Academic career== In 1976, the [[United States Naval Academy]] in [[Annapolis, Maryland]] appointed Symonds [[assistant professor]] of history to succeed Professor [[E. B. Potter]] as a specialist in [[Naval history]]. He was subsequently promoted to [[associate professor]] in 1980 and [[professor]] of history in 1985. He served as chairman of the history department in 1988–1992 and appointed professor emeritus on his retirement in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/28751.html|title=History News Network - Craig Symonds: Sea battle book earns prize for professor|work=hnn.us|date=30 July 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://civilwarstudies.org/articles/Vol_4/ten-at-gettysburg.shtm|title=Smithsonian Civil War Studies: Seminar Review – Ten At Gettysburg, by Craig L. Symonds; Reviewed by Antigoni Ladd|work=civilwarstudies.org}}</ref> In 1994–1995, he was [[visiting lecturer]] at [[Britannia Royal Naval College]] in [[Dartmouth, England]]. He returned to teach at the Naval Academy as The Class of 1957 Distinguished Professor of American Naval Heritage for 2011–12. In 2017, he was appointed to a two-year term as the [[Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History|Ernest J. King Distinguished Visiting Professor of Maritime History]] at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.<ref>[https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/craig-l-symonds The Great Courses]</ref>
==Awards== * Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writingory in 2023 * Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature in 2015 for ''[[Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.navalorder.org/awards/2015/10/16/neptune-by-craig-l-symonds-2015-samuel-eliot-morison-award-for-naval-literature |title=Neptune by Craig L. Symonds – 2015 Samuel Eliot Morison Award For Naval Literature |publisher=[[Naval Order of the United States]] |author= |date=September 14, 2015 |accessdate=December 23, 2017}}</ref> * In 2014, The [[Naval Historical Foundation]] awarded him the [[Commodore Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award]].<ref>David F. Winkler, "Naval Historians to Receive Knox Award," ''Pull Together'' (Volume 53 No. 3, Summer 2014) / ''Daybook'' (Volume 17 Issue 3), p. 12.</ref> * The Abraham Lincoln Book Award, 2010 * The [[Lincoln Prize]], 2009 (co-winner with James M. McPherson) for ''Lincoln and His Admirals''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2009/03/05-31/Retired-academy-professor-wins-his-25K-Lincoln-Prize.html|title=Real Estate|work=hometownannapolis.com}}</ref> * [https://web.archive.org/web/20130825065350/http://cwrtnyc.org/barondess.html The Barondess Prize], 2009 * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030527091611/http://www.austincivilwar.org/laney.htm The Daniel and Marilyn Laney Prize]}}, 2009 * [http://chicagocwrt.org/anfa.html The Nevins-Freeman Prize], 2009 * The [[Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History]], 2006 * Anne Arundel County Award for Literary Arts, 2006 * [[John Lyman Book Awards]], 1995, 1999, 2009 * USNA Research Excellence Award, 1998 * USNA Teaching Excellence Award, 1988 * [[Navy Superior Civilian Service Award]], 1994, 1998, 2005, 2020 * [[Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award]], 1989 * History Book Club Author, 1983, 1986, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2010 * Military Book Club Author, 1983, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2005 * Book-of-the-Month Club Author, 1983, 1986, 1992, 2001, 2005
==Published works== * ''Charleston Blockade: The Journals of John B. Marchand, USN'', edited by Craig Symonds. (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1976. * ''Navalists and Antinavalists: The Naval Policy Debate in the United States, 1785–1827''. (University of Delaware Press, 1980). * ''New Aspects of Naval History,'' edited by Craig Symonds. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1981). * ''A Battlefield Atlas of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]''. (Annapolis, MD: Nautical and Aviation Press, 1983). {{ISBN|978-0933852495}} * {{Cite book| title=Recollections of a Naval Officer, 1841–1865| author= William H. Parker| author-link= William Harwar Parker| editor= Craig Symonds| place=Annapolis, MD| publisher= Naval Institute Press| year= 1985| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4odz6mD0qUC&q=Craig+Symonds| isbn=978-0-87021-533-9 }} * ''A Battlefield Atlas of the [[American Revolution]]''. (Annapolis, MD: Nautical and Aviation Press, 1986). * {{Cite book| title=A Year on a Monitor| author= Alvah F. Hunter| editor= Craig Symonds| place=Columbia, SC| publisher= University of South Carolina Press| year= 1987| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFBz64hxS74C&q=Craig+Symonds| isbn=978-0-87249-761-0 }} (reprint 1991) * {{Cite book| title=Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography| place= New York| publisher= Norton| year= 1992| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykSEvcmi4owC&q=Craig+Symonds| isbn=978-0-393-31130-3 }} * ''Gettysburg: A Battlefield Atlas,'' by Craig Symonds with William J. Clipson. (Annapolis, MD: Nautical and Aviation, 1992). * {{Cite book| title=The Naval Institute Historical Atlas of the U.S. Navy| place=Annapolis, MD| publisher= Naval Institute Press| year= 1995| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_HIcc8n3K4C&q=Craig+Symonds| isbn=978-1-55750-984-0| others=Illustrator William J. Clipson }} * ''Stonewall of the West: [[Patrick Cleburne]] and the Civil War''. (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1997). * ''Confederate Admiral: The Life and Wars of [[Franklin Buchanan]]''. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999). {{ISBN|978-1591148463}} * {{Cite book| title=American Heritage History of the Battle of Gettysburg| place=New York| publisher= HarperCollins| year=2001| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P0-_stFws60C&q=Craig+Symonds| isbn=978-0-06-054933-6 }} * ''New Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers from the Fourteenth Naval History Symposium, Held at Annapolis, Maryland, 23–25 September 1999,'' Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 2001. * {{Cite book| title=Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History| place=New York| publisher=Oxford University Press| year= 2005| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Te8UfCpV7MC&dq=Craig+Symonds&pg=PP1| isbn=978-0-19-531211-9 }} * {{Cite book| title=Lincoln and his Admirals| place=New York| publisher= Oxford University Press| year= 2008| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cnq4UO9YD5IC&q=Craig+Symonds| isbn=978-0-19-531022-1 }} * {{Cite book| title=The Battle of Midway| place=New York| publisher= Oxford University Press| year= 2011| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=goIo0gCHiE4C| isbn=978-0-19-539793-2}} * {{Cite book| title=The Civil War at Sea| place=New York| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=2012| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpIYke2ZehIC&q=Symonds+civil+war+at+sea|isbn=978-0199931682}} * {{Cite book|title=[[Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings]]|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0199986118}} * {{Cite book|title=World War Two at Sea: A Global History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0190243678}} * {{Cite book|title=Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2022|isbn=978-0190062361}} * {{Cite book|title=Annapolis Goes to War: The Naval Academy Class of 1940 and its Trial by Fire in World War II|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2025|isbn=978-0197752678}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{C-SPAN|58489}} * [http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/craig-l-symonds-battle-midway/ Interview] on ''The Battle of Midway'' at the [[Pritzker Military Museum & Library]] on October 7, 2011 * [https://www.thelincolnforum.org/officers Executive Committee of The Lincoln Forum profile]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Symonds, Craig L.}} [[Category:1946 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:20th-century American historians]] [[Category:21st-century American historians]] [[Category:American historians of World War II]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:American naval historians]] [[Category:Historians of the American Civil War]] [[Category:Lincoln Prize winners]] [[Category:Naval War College faculty]] [[Category:UCLA College of Letters and Science alumni]] [[Category:University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni]] [[Category:United States Naval Academy faculty]] [[Category:Writers from Long Beach, California]] [[Category:Historians from California]] [[Category:Writers from Anaheim, California]]