Dr. Alexander S. Burns joined Franciscan in August 2022, after a year of teaching for West Virginia University. His dissertation advisor was the late Katherine B. Aaslestad. A scholar of eighteenth-century conflict in North America and Europe, he has recently edited a volume: The Changing Face of Old Regime Warfare: Essays in Honour of Christopher Duffy. Alex has previously taught at Indiana Wesleyan University and Montreat College. This fall, he is publishing his first monograph: Infantry in Battle, 1733-1783. This project re-examines the nature of infantry combat during the high eighteenth century, particularly focusing on the War of Polish Succession and American War of Independence. Infantry in Battle rewrites the story of combat in the eighteenth century by placing enlisted infantrymen and their experiences at center stage. While popular memory and film portray these men as robotic automata they fought in flexible and adaptable ways, and they left their mark on eighteenth-century warfare. His next book project Firm Battalions and American Fire: The Continental Army and Military Europe explores the international culture of military professionalism that Baron von Steuben transferred to the United States during the American War of Independence.
