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Special Event—The 2025 Society of the Cincinnati Prize Presentation & Reception
October 8, 2025 @ 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
The 2025 Society of the Cincinnati Prize honors Vaughn Scribner, Ph.D., for his book Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America (University of North Carolina Press, 2024), which illustrates how foreign soldiers’ perceptions of the American environment during the Revolution merged with harsh wartime realities to elicit considerable physical, mental, and emotional anguish.
The Revolutionary War is often celebrated as marking the birth of American republicanism, liberty and representative democracy, yet for the tens of thousands of British and Hessian troops sent three thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean to wage war under alien skies, such a progressive picture couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Whether trudging through alligator-infested swamps, nursing a comrade back to health in a rain-sodden tent or digging trenches in a burned-out port city, most who fought in America under the British army’s flag ultimately deemed themselves strangers fighting in a strange land.
In this special event, Dr. Scribner will receive the 2025 Society of the Cincinnati Prize and draw from his book to discuss how America’s War of Independence descended into a quagmire of anxiety, destruction and distress for the British and German soldiers at the hands of the American environment. The lecture will be followed by a reception.
The Society of the Cincinnati Prize was established in 1989 to recognize authors of outstanding books that advance understanding of the American Revolution and its legacy. Registration for this event is required and closes on Tuesday, September 30. This special event will only be held in-person at Anderson House. Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please register by using the link below.