David Hsiung, Juniata University
November 12, time TBD
Location TBD

When we consider war’s effects on the environment, our thoughts probably turn to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, or the missile attacks that have endangered Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and have plunged its citizens into frigid darkness.  But what about war back in the 1700s?  How did the War of Independence affect the natural world?

This talk will focus on three case studies. First, at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778, Continental soldiers cut down over 127,000 trees to build their log huts, and split thousands of cords of firewood. You might be able to predict some of the short-term and long-term effects of such deforestation. Second, in September 1778 British forces raided Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, and the residents paid a heavy price that included the loss of over 10,000 sheep. This raid, however, produced some “positive” environmental effects that might surprise you. Finally, at the battles of Saratoga in upstate New York in 1777, soldiers shot upwards of 660,000 lead musket balls. How did that amount of lead on the ground affect humans and other organisms? Some of the effects might only have started this century. By considering these topics we not only get a fresh way to think about the American Revolution and its legacies, but also a useful perspective on war and on the natural world, two issues that pervade our lives today.

David C. Hsiung grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and earned his B.A. from Yale, and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.  He has taught at Juniata College, in Pennsylvania, since 1991 and is Professor of History Emeritus.  He has published Two Worlds in the Tennessee Mountains: Exploring the Origins of Appalachian Stereotypes (which won the Appalachian Studies Award) and A Mountaineer in Motion: The Memoir of Dr. Abraham Jobe, 1817-1906.  His article in the New England Quarterly, “Food, Fuel, and the New England Environment in the War for Independence, 1775-1776,” won the 2008 Theodore C. Blegen Award from the Forest History Society. In 2000, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education named him “Professor of the Year” for Pennsylvania.  He is currently working on a book that examines environmental history and the War of Independence.