The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson

"The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson," one of Bernard Bailyn's many histories that will forever keep him on the radar of scholars, is an excellent, if apologist account of one of 18th century Boston's most controversial loyalist leaders. The work, which serves (very effectively) to vindicate the man of the demonization he suffered in life at the hands of Samuel and John Adams, James Otis and others, also fills in a hole often left vacant in histories of the revolution - that of the loyalist that loves America. Bailyn's portrait of Hutchinson is that of a shrewd and wise statesman that truly believes he is doing what is best for his country, and is thwarted continuously by men he feels to be of lesser intelligence or of self-serving objectives. For his goodness, if Bailyn is to be believed, Hutchinson is made to suffer through unimaginable slanders and libels, not to mention violence. Through it all, as well as through the ineptness of the British crown, which is revealed to him later in life, Hutchinson, in his way, is painted as a patriot, and it is a service to him and to students of history that Bailyn revealed him as such. The one shortcoming of this book is its aim at scholars exclusively. Those with a casual interest in American Revolutionary history might feel lost in this book. And while that is certainly not a bad thing for those of us who are looking for a deeper look, it certainly limits the book's appeal to a broader audience.

I'll cheerfully agree with the reviewer below who claims that Bailyn's biography of Thomas Hutchinson, who was a fixture in Massachusetts politics for the last two decades of the colonial period and who was the loyalist governor of the province at the time of the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, presupposes a general knowledge of American Revolutionary History and the acts of Parliament which figured so prominently in it. In fact, I'll go a step further and say that one's enjoyment of this book would be greatly enhanced by reading two of Bailyn's other works which provide the scholarly framework for Bailyn's argument in this book: THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION and THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Bailyn's central argument in this book is that Hutchinson, the prototypical Loyalist, failed because he could never conceptually understand the ideological underpinnings of his opponents' thought. He was convinced that a small group of demogogues motivated by base self-interest had managed to convince the populace at large that the British government was plotting against them and their God-given rights when it was clear to Hutchinson that all notions of a perfidious British plot were absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately, Hutchinson's analysis of the situation was severely flawed, and Hutchinson's failure to understand his opponents made him incapable of convincing them that they were in error.Bailyn is the foremost living historian of the American Revolution, and this book is what one would expect from someone of Bailyn's stature. It's wonderfully researched and wonderfully written, and it truly is a joy to read. It's not the first book that one should read about the American Revolution, but it's certainly on the list.