One difficulty in writing a balanced history of the American Revolution arises in part from its success as a creator of our nation and our nationalistic sentiment. Unlike the Civil War, unlike the French Revolution, the American Revolution produced no lingering social trauma in the United States--it is a historic event widely applauded by Americans today as both necessary and desirable. But one consequence of this happy unanimity is that the chief losers of the War of Independence--the American Loyalists--have fared badly at the hands of historians. This explains, in part, why the account of...
One difficulty in writing a balanced history of the American Revolution arises in part from its success as a creator of our nation and our nationalist...