A new edition of the germinal study of Loyalism in the American Revolution
Building on the work of his 1989 book, The Loyalist Perception and Other Essays, accomplished historian
Robert M. Calhoon returns to the subject of internal
strife in the American Revolution with Tory Insurgents.
This volume collects revised, updated versions of eighteen
groundbreaking articles, essays, and chapters published
since 1965, and it also features one essay original to this
volume. In a model of scholarly collaboration, coauthors
Calhoon, Timothy M. Barnes, and Robert Scott Davis are joined in select pieces by Donald C. Lord, Janice Potter,
and Robert M. Weir.
Among the topics broached by this noted group of historians are the diverse political ideals represented in the
Loyalist stance; the coherence of the Loyalist press; the
loyalism of garrison towns, the Floridas, and the Western
frontier; Carolina loyalism as viewed by Irish-born
patriots Aedanus and Thomas Burke; and the postwar
reintegration of Loyalists as citizens of the new nation.
Included as well is a chapter and epilogue from Calhoon's
seminal—but long out-of-print—1973 study The Loyalists
in Revolutionary America, 1760–1781. This updated
collection will serve as an unrivaled point of entrance
into Loyalist research for scholars and students of the
American Revolution.
Robert M. Calhoon is an adjunct professor of history at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Calhoon is the author of numerous books, including The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, 1760–1781; Evangelicals and Conservatives in the Early South, 1740–1861; and Political Moderation in America's First Two Centuries.
Timothy M. Barnes is an associate professor of history at
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
He is coeditor with Robert M. Calhoon and George A.
Rawlyk of Loyalists and Community in North America.
Robert Scott Davis is director of the Family and Regional
History Program and a professor of genealogy, geography,
and history at Wallace State College in Hanceville,
Alabama. He is the author of more than twenty books,
including Tracing Your Alabama Past, Requiem for a Lost
City: Sallie Clayton's Memoirs of Civil War Atlanta and Cotton, Fire, and Dreams: The Robert Findlay Iron Works and
Heavy Industry in Macon, Georgia, 1839–1912.
"Well researched and cogently written, [these essays] map Robert M. Calhoon's
quest to understand the American Loyalists . . . [and] illuminate the rich diversity of
thought, motivation, and practice present in the Loyalist community."—Journal of
American History
"All serious students of the internal conflict begotten by the American Revolution will
want to ponder Calhoon's essays and apply them to their own work."—William and
Mary Quarterly
"As a study of the moral dilemma facing members of the Loyalist elite, this is a valuable
collection. Gracefully written and well argued, it tells historians as much about
patriot values as it does about the Loyalist response to a changing society."—North
Carolina Historical Review
"This book demands the serious attention of all students of the American Revolution."—Georgia Historical Quarterly
"Calhoon's sifting of secondary works and his insights from contemporary documents
are useful not only to students of the formation of the republic but also to the wide
community of scholars interested in the nature and impact of the American Revolution
throughout North America."—American Review of Canadian Studies |