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/lp/university-of-pennsylvania-press/dunmore-s-new-world-the-extraordinary-life-of-a-royal-governor-in-0954DDbJhN
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2008 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.
- ISSN
- 1553-0620
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
R EVIEWS EDITED BY ANDREW BURSTEIN AND NANCY ISENBERG Dunmore's New World: The Extraordinary Life of a Royal Governor in Revolutionary America--with Jacobites, Counterfeiters, Land Schemes, Shipwrecks, Scalping, Indian Politics, Runaway Slaves, and Two Illegal Royal Weddings. By James Corbett David. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013. Pp. 270. Cloth, $29.95.) Reviewed by Ronald L. Hatzenbuehler Dunmore's New World is less a book about John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, than it is about the incongruities and weaknesses of British rule in North America. Author James Corbett David attempts to give Dunmore a starring role in his ``new world,'' but the Scottish lord instead becomes a minor actor due to a paucity of primary sources, his own eccentricities and imperious behavior, and--eventually--the changing priorities of foreign policy planners in London. In the absence of a protagonist, the author's stories of Indians, slaves, backwoodsmen, and hosts of adventurers cannot sustain his overall view of Dunmore and similar-minded Loyalists. Throughout the book, one expects Dunmore to take center stage at any moment. Despite his father's Jacobite attachments, his uncle remained loyal to George II, and young Dunmore received a commission in the British army through his uncle's influence. Unlike the
Journal
Journal of the Early Republic – University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: Aug 12, 2014