Environment and Suffering in the American Revolution

Video Description

On October 15, 2025, historian Vaughn Scribner, Ph.D., professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas, was awarded the 2025 Society of the Cincinnati Prize for his book Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America, which focuses on the experiences of British and German Soldiers with the American environment during the American Revolution. In this special lecture, Dr. Scribner uses the various themes of his book—“coming over”; “terrains”; “flora and fauna”; “climate, weather, and disease”; “mental illness”; and “going home”— to explore how the American forces dealt with the same natural world during the war. About the Speaker Vaughn Scribner, Ph.D., is the winner of the 2025 Society of the Cincinnati Prize for his book, Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America. His research primarily focuses on early American history in a global context, specifically striving to understand how early modern Britons sought to define—and redefine—their positions in the empire. He earned his Ph.D. in early American history from the University of Kansas in 2013 and has since been on the faculty of the University of Central Arkansas, where he currently serves as an associate professor of history. Throughout his career, Dr. Scribner has authored several books, including Inn Civility: Urban Taverns and Early American Civil Society (NYU Press, 2019), an analysis of early Americans’ mercurial attempts at realizing a “civil society” through the lens of the urban tavern, and Merpeople: A Human History (Reaktion Books, 2020), which explores humanity’s long-held obsession with merpeople to gain a deeper understanding of one of the most mysterious, capricious and dangerous creatures on earth: humans. His other publications range from an investigation of how colonists used mineral springs to transform the natural environment to an analysis of Caribbean sugar plantation slavery to a biographical study of Prince William Henry, the first British royal to set foot in America. They have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Early American Studies, the Journal of Social History, Atlantic Studies: Global Currents, Urban History, Itinerario, Agricultural History, the Journal of Early American History, and the edited volumes Order and Civility in the Early Modern Chesapeake and A Cultural History of Leisure in the Enlightenment. Purchase a copy of Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America: https://bit.ly/4h91Nii Watch Dr. Scribner's author's talk on January 16, 2025: https://youtu.be/Q3zq3FHmCOY Learn more about the Society of the Cincinnati Prize: https://bit.ly/4n4Sh1a SUBSCRIBE to our channel: https://bit.ly/3DxZnrJ Follow us on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanRevo... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americanrev... Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmRevInstitute Stay updated by joining our mailing list: https://bit.ly/3TpfhdL Become an Associate of the American Revolution Institute: https://bit.ly/3Bonuqp Visit our website: www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org Learn more and explore future and past programs: www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/events #amrevinstitute