Eli Merritt Wins the 2024 Society of the Cincinnati Prize
May 2, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati is pleased to announce that the 2024 Society of the Cincinnati Prize has been presented to Eli Merritt, M.D., M.A., research assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, for his book Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution, published in 2023 by the University of Missouri Press.
Disunion Among Ourselves explores political divisions that assailed the Continental Congress and reveals the regional forces that threatened to break apart the United States’ first government. Merritt’s study of disunion and fear of domestic civil war contributes to the knowledge of the lasting influence of the political rhetoric from the American Revolution and shows how our national union was achieved through compromises made for the sake of peacekeeping and self-preservation.
“The political history present at the founding of the nation is an important focus as we examine why the American Revolution remains relevant today,” says Andy Morse, executive director of the Society of the Cincinnati. “The history of the revolution is also the story of how the new country earned as well as maintained independence, and how former subjects of the British Crown learned to become citizens. Disunion Among Ourselves includes timeless lessons on the civic virtues that helped to sustain democracy during the tumultuous period after our Revolutionary War.”
The Society of the Cincinnati Prize is the premier award for scholarship bestowed by the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, Inc. It is presented to the author of an outstanding book that advances understanding of the American Revolution and its legacy. Established in 1989 as a triennial award, the prize is now presented annually. Honorees have included leading historians as well as rising scholars in the field.
The prize was made possible by a gift from the family of the late H. Bartholomew Cox, Ph.D. and has been presented since 1989. Among previous honorees are Bernard Bailyn, Voyagers to the West (1989); Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (1995); Saul Cornell, The Other Founders (2001); Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana (2004); Alan Taylor, The Divided Ground (2007); Benjamin Carp, Defiance of the Patriots (2013); Eric Hinderaker, Boston’s Massacre (2018); T. Cole Jones, Captives of Liberty (2020); and Friederike Baer, Hessians (2022).
For more information contact:
Thomas Lannon
Library Director
tlannon@societyofthecincinnati.org
202.785.2040 x426