| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 237 words from this article are provided below; about 618 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Judith L. Van Buskirk. Generous Enemies: Patriots and Loyalists in Revolutionary New York. (Early American Studies.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2002. Pp. 260. $35.00.

In a nicely written and well-argued volume, Judith L. Van Buskirk discusses the strong ties that overrode political concerns and bound friends, family, and acquaintances to each other despite the American Revolution. The work fits in with recent historiography on revolutionary New York, including Joseph S. Tiedemann, Reluctant Revolutionaries: New York City and the Road to Independence, 1763–1776 (1997) and Richard M. Ketchum, Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution Came to New York (2002). Tiedemann explores the difficulties faced by New York's heterogeneous population in reaching a consensus on how to oppose British imperialism, while Ketchum comments on the almost religious zeal that swept up patriots who then engaged in the savage persecution of Loyalists. Van Buskirk addresses some of these issues, but rather than concentrating on societal divisions, she emphasizes the factors that drew people together. Personal ties, argues Van Buskirk, more than ideology often led Patriots and Loyalists to put aside political considerations and maintain amicable contact. She believes that war in New York City "saw two communities operate in close, sustained proximity, each testing the limits of military and political authority ... They learned to survive on their own terms and in so doing became generous enemies" (p. 7).

. . .

There are about 618 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.