John Buchanan Wins the 2020 Society of the Cincinnati Prize
April 4, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati is pleased to announce that the 2020 Society of the Cincinnati Prize will be presented to John Buchanan for his book The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution, published in 2019 by the University of Virginia Press. The prize will be presented to Mr. Buchanan at a special event to be scheduled after the current public health emergency has ended.
“Greene’s campaign to redeem the Carolinas and Georgia has long challenged historians,” says Jack D. Warren, executive director of the American Revolution Institute. “Greene lost most of the battles, but nonetheless forced the British to give up one critical post after another, finally forcing them into fortified lines around Charleston. John Buchanan does a fine job retelling the story of Greene’s battles, but what distinguishes The Road to Charleston is how well he handles the rest of the story—Greene’s struggles to keep his little army supplied and make good his losses in a region where government had collapsed and partisan militias waged a brutal war of vengeance and reprisal.”
The Society of the Cincinnati Prize is the premier award for scholarship bestowed by the Society of the Cincinnati. It is presented to the author of an outstanding book that advances understanding of the American Revolution and its legacy. Originally presented triennially, it is now awarded annually.
The prize was made possible by a gift from the family of the late H. Bartholomew Cox 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), Matthew Spring, With Zeal and Bayonets Only (2010), Benjamin Carp, Defiance of the Patriots (2013), and Eric Hinderaker, Boston’s Massacre (2018). The prize winner is selected by a jury of historians and educators.