Synopses & Reviews
Review
"While focusing on Jonathan Sewall, an aristocratic Boston Loyalist, Ms. Berkin also tells the story of a society caught in a revolution. She does a good job of placing Sewall in the context of Massachusetts politics, but the revolutionary actions taking place in the other colonies are hardly touched. The real weakness of the study, however, lies in the failure to relate Sewall and his actions to the other Loyalists. The question of whether or not his was a special case or typical is never broached, let alone answered. Overall, however, this volume is a useful edition to the growing corpus of work being done on the American Loyalists." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)