THE GOOD AMERICANS: The Loyalists in the American Revolution

An interesting, well-documented account of the Loyalists who stood by the Crown during the War of Independence. Brown, a member of the History Department at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, maintains that the Loyalists have received short shrift from both British and American historians: the Americans, in order to foster the legend of near-unanimity among the rebels; the British because their historians have been dominated by the Whig point of view from Burke to Trevelyan. But the Loyalists composed up to a third of the colonial population. Some 100,000 emigrated after 1776, and like emigres everywhere (""history's losers"") suffered poverty, exile, and humiliation. Some prospered, and the strength of English Canada can be traced to the American influx. Many sidelights: Loyalists strong among doctors, weak among teachers; strong in New York, weak in Virginia; some poignant accounts of suffering-American politics even then being given to violence. The general reader may find the detailed breakdown of Loyalists by colony, profession, religion, and origin tedious, but the rest remains absorbing.