Logan Beirne '08 Named Washington Historian Winner of 2014 William E. Colby Award
NORTHFIELD, VT – Norwich University officials have named Logan Beirne ’08 the 2014 William E. Colby Award winner for his book, Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency.
Formerly an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell law firm in New York City and a Fulbright Scholar at Queen’s University, Beirne is an Olin Scholar at Yale Law School. He received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was a Coker Fellow and was awarded the Edgar M. Cullen Prize. His writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, Fox News, CSPAN, the New York Post and the Washington Times.
Blood of Tyrants (Encounter Books, 2013) follows the nation’s first commander-in-chief as he and other founding fathers struggle to define issues that are still relevant today. Washington is brought to life as both a supremely powerful “new type of dictator” and a champion of the rights and liberty of citizens of an emerging country. Beirne leads with the idea that complicated wartime issues debated 200 years ago can inform modern conversations on leadership, federal debt, citizen’s rights and the balance of power.
“I am proud to endorse Logan Beirne’s Blood of Tyrants as the winner of the 2014 Colby Award,” said Carlo D’Este, executive director of the William E. Colby Military Writers’ Symposium. “His book is a superbly researched and elegantly written account of our first commander-in-chief’s leadership of the American Revolution, and is a major contribution to our knowledge and understanding of George Washington as the father of our country.”
“I am honored to receive the William E. Colby Award. William Colby's tireless efforts to defend democracy and civil liberties epitomize our founding ideals, and I am humbled to receive his namesake honor,” Beirne said.
A $5,000 author honorarium is provided through a grant from the Chicago-based Tawani Foundation. The award and honorarium will be presented at Norwich University during the 2014 Colby Military Writers’ Symposium at the Meet the Authors Dinner on April 10, 2014. The 2014 Symposium will take place April 9-10, and is open to the public.
Named for the late ambassador and former CIA director William E. Colby, the Colby Award recognizes a first work of fiction or non-fiction that has made a significant contribution to the public’s understanding of intelligence operations, military history or international affairs. The William E. Colby Award began at Norwich University in 1999.
Previous recipients of the Colby Award include Thomas McKenna, James Bradley, Nathanial Fick, Col. Jack Jacobs, Dexter Filkins, Marcus Lutrell, John Glusman and Karl Marlantes.
