CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College history professor Ken Miller’s recent book, Dangerous Guests: Enemy Captives and Revolutionary Communities During the War for Independencehas been named the 2014 Book of the Year by the Journal of the American Revolution, a popular online magazine and annual book dedicated to America’s Founding. 

A news release from The Journal explains that the Book of the Year honor goes to the non-fiction volume that best mirrors the journal’s mission of delivering creative and smart content that makes American Revolution history more engaging for a broad audience.  “That means the award is for a combination of meticulous, ideally ground-breaking research and well-written narrative that appeals to both scholars and non-academic readers alike,” the release states. 

In Dangerous Guests, published last fall byCornell University Press, Miller masterfully presents a multi-dimensional study of the impact of Revolutionary War prisoners on the community in which they were held. The book describes the experience of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the primary location for holding British, German and Loyalist prisoners captured by American forces during the war. In his treatment of a complex topic Miller “delivers a volume that deserves a place on the shelf of every serious scholar of America’s transition from colonies to nation,” the award announcement states. 

On Saturday, February 7, at 4:45 p.m., C-SPAN 3 will air its coverage of a book talk Miller delivered in early January at the Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York City. 

The Journal of the American Revolution awarded Honorable Mentions to An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America by Nick Bunker (Knopf, 2014), and Inventing Ethan Allen by John J. Duffy and H. Nicholas Muller III (University Press of New England, 2014). For more information about the Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year Award, visit http://allthingsliberty.com/bookawards/.