"On the eve of the American Revolution, the British army considered the case of a chaplain, Robert Newburgh, who had been accused of having sex with a man. Newburgh's enemies cited his flamboyant appearance, defiance of military authority, and seduction of soldiers as proof of low character. Consumed by fears that the British Empire would be torn asunder, his opponents claimed that these supposed crimes against nature translated to crimes against the king. In VICIOUS AND IMMORAL, historian John Gilbert McCurdy tells this compelling story of male intimacy and provides an unparalleled glimpse inside eighteenth-century perceptions of queerness"--Front jacket flap