Kathryn Shively Meier Wins the 2014 Wiley-Silver Book Prize

Kathryn Shively Meier, an assistant professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, has won the 2014 Wiley-Silver Book Prize for her work, Nature’s Civil War: Common Soldiers and the Environment in 1862 Virginia (University of North Carolina Press, 2013). The award is given for the best debut book on the history of the Civil War by the Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi. The book explores how both Confederate and Union Civil War soldiers experienced and adapted to the threatening environment of war in terms of their mental and physical health.

Dr. Meier joined the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013. Previously, she taught at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. Dr. Meier is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in English with a concentration in poetry. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Virginia.