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Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America
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 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to wage war under alien skies, such a progressive picture, as Vaughn Scribner reveals, could not have been further from the truth. In Under Alien Skies, Scribner illustrates how foreign soldiers' negative perceptions of the American environment merged with harsh wartime realities to elicit considerable physical, mental, and emotional anguish.
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. For them, Revolutionary America looked nothing like the “happy land . . . blessed with every climate” that Revolutionary republicans so successfully promoted. Instead, the War of Independence descended into a quagmire of anxiety, destruction, and distress at the hands of the American environment—a “Diabolical Country,” as one British soldier opined, “which no Earthly Compensation can put me in Charity with.”
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. For them, Revolutionary America looked nothing like the “happy land . . . blessed with every climate” that Revolutionary republicans so successfully promoted. Instead, the War of Independence descended into a quagmire of anxiety, destruction, and distress at the hands of the American environment—a “Diabolical Country,” as one British soldier opined, “which no Earthly Compensation can put me in Charity with.”
- GenresNonfiction
250 pages, Hardcover
First published November 27, 2024
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 30, 2025
Parts of this book were really good, and as a whole, I'd recommend it.
However, it took me a long time to get through it, because the writing is repetitive and often bland. It seemed to me that he began and ended each chapter as if he were serializing the book, and had to catch the reader up to date.
Also, the book is only technically 250 pages. It's actually about 160, plus notes and bibliography.
However, it took me a long time to get through it, because the writing is repetitive and often bland. It seemed to me that he began and ended each chapter as if he were serializing the book, and had to catch the reader up to date.
Also, the book is only technically 250 pages. It's actually about 160, plus notes and bibliography.
Displaying 1 of 1 review