So Obstinately Loyal: James Moody, 1744-1809 - Hardcover

Shenstone, Susan Burgess

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0886293553 ISBN 13: 9780886293550

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Once called "that villain Moody" by George Washington himself, and "the best Partizan we had," by William Franklin, the Loyalist governor of New Jersey, Moody risked his life recruiting, gathering intelligence, and freeing prisoners behind American lines. Next came dispossession and exile in London, where he strove to obtain British recognition of his losses, and wrote the objective, exciting account of his fateful choice, and the exploits that inspired this book. So Obstinately Loyal culminates in Weymouth, Nova Scotia, where, along with almost 40,000 other Loyalists, Moody had to remake a life among the Acadians and earlier Yankee settlers. His complex career encompassed ship-building, efforts to found an Anglican parish, military service as an officer in a regiment formed to defend against invasion from revolutionary France, and building on his American experience to work for constitutional reform. Moody's life was shaped by the growing pains of fledgling nationhood on both sides of the border. Yet he and people like him also helped to shape the destinies of nations. This complex weave of precarious existence and nation-building, of adaptation and "staking one's all," emerges clearly from Susan Shenstones's meticulous research and vivid writing.

About this title

About the Author:

Shenstone has her MA in English and American literature from George Washington University.

Review:

"This book has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster." Atlantic Books Today ----- "A significant contribution to Canadian and American history. Shenstone's biography of James Moody is one of the few comprehensive biographies of a loyalist who settled in Nova Scotia." The Journal of Military History ----- "This book catches all the drama of Moody's adventures, separating fact from fiction in the numerous legends, and treats fully his family life and overall career. It affords a rare view of life among those Americans who were Loyalists and exiles." Social & Behavioral Sciences

About this edition

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0886293553
• ISBN 13: 9780886293550
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 392