The Good Americans: The Loyalists In the American Revolution

by Wallace Brown

THIS IS A WELL USED, WELL WORN BOOK. FORMER LIBRARY BOOK WITH USUAL STAMPS AND MARKINGS. COVERS AND SPINE HAVE WEAR, DINGS, SCUFFING AND CHAFING. PAGES INTACT AND GENERALLY CLEAN. NICE READING COPY!

Genres: History

302 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1969

About the author

Wallace Brown was Professor Emeritus in History at the University of New Brunswick. A graduate of Oxford, Brown earned his MA at the University of Nebraska and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. Before his arrival at the University of New Brunswick in 1967, Brown taught at the University of Alberta and Brown University.

Reviews

[Ian Racey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The study of the Tories I've been looking for for a long time. A discussion of demographics, political philosophies, and why the Loyalists were so much less successful in mobilising public opinion than the Patriots were. Brown makes a lot of good points: that the Tories were generally just as opposed to British governmental intrusions as the Patriots; that "continued self-government under the imperial system" was a less intuitive sell than "independence and control of ourselves"; that the Tories had numbers (albeit smaller ones than the revolutionaries) but that they lacked leaders of true genius like the Patriots had in Ben Franklin, Samuel Adams or Thomas Paine. Also a look at how the Loyalists were essentially erased from the memory of the American Revolution by both American and British historians, leading to a distorted picture of the United States's founding.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather dryly, this history tells the story of 'the loyalists in the American revolution', those colonists who, at one time or another, accepted the authority of the British crown. Although author Brown, himself an academic, attempts demographic analyses, he must needs estimate, many hiding, some changing, and others concealing their allegiances. Much of the text consists of Loyalists' writings. Some, at the conclusion, relates their fates--whether in the newly constituted United States or in exile, especially in Canada. A sad tale from what, for me, was a refreshingly different perspective.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this title. I am still looking for a similar work focusing specifically on New York that I can get via interlibrary loan. I recently discovered I have some loyalists in my family history and the more I can learn helps understand how they ended up in Canada and then back in the U.S. a generation later.

[Sean Chick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthy book but an exceedingly dry one that often reads more like a collection of anecdotes than an argument. Ultimately the Loyalists come across as combative but foolish, so Brown varies in his pronouncements, being by turns admiring and damning, although usually he seems more amused by them as being kind of pest. This is not bad in of itself. It shows a variation in his ideas, but one that is confusing. Was Joseph Galloway an asset to the Loyalists or a fool? Brown says both things in different parts of the book.

This is a solid work, but it falls short being a classic. Mostly it is because Brown cannot decide whether the Loyalists were more like the Whigs or a more distinct group of men and women. Evidence lies in both camps, so there had to be a variation on Loyalist sentiment much as there was in Patriot sentiment. Brown never says this. He just sorta shrugs.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best book I’ve read on this subject, but it was one of the earliest attempting to remedy the fact that after the American War of Independence, “British historians joined American historians in sweeping the Loyalists from sight, and against such a formidable combination Canadian historians could hardly be heard” (p. 225).