In Unfriendly to Liberty, Christopher F. Minty explores the origins of loyalism in New York City between 1768 and 1776, and revises our understanding of the coming of the American Revolution.

Through detailed analyses of those who became loyalists, Minty argues that would-be loyalists came together long before Lexington and Concord to form an organized, politically motivated, and inclusive political group that was centered around the DeLancey faction. Following the DeLanceys' election to the New York Assembly in 1768, these men, elite and nonelite, championed an inclusive political economy that advanced the public good, and they strongly protested Parliament's reorientation of the British Empire.

For New York loyalists, it was local politics, factions, institutions, and behaviors that governed their political activities in the build up to the American Revolution. By focusing on political culture, organization, and patterns of allegiance, Unfriendly to Liberty shows how the contending allegiances of loyalists and patriots were all but locked in place by 1775 when British troops marched out of Boston to seize caches of weapons in neighboring villages.

Indeed, local political alignments that were formed in the imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s provided a critical platform for the divide between loyalists and patriots in New York City. Political and social disputes coming out of the Seven Years' War, more than republican radicalization in the 1770s, forged the united force that would make New York City a center of loyalism throughout the American Revolution.

Christopher F. Minty is an editor at the Center for Digital Editing at the University of Virginia.

This is a very fine book and will no doubt become a standard reference for New York politics in the lead-up to the American Revolutionary War.

Minty has produced an important and original book. Even among the surge of loyalist scholarship in recent years,Unfriendly to Liberty should stand out as a crucial contribution. All historians of loyalism would benefit from reading it and reflecting on Minty's findings.

Unfriendly to Liberty is an excellent, exhaustively researched book that will generate new conversations in loyalist studies and among scholars of the revolution.

A substantial contribution to the other side and the under side of the American Revolution in New York City has been made by Christopher F. Minty.

Revolutionary War historian and digital documentary editor Christopher F. Minty provides provocative and unexpected answers to these questions in his new monograph, Unfriendly to Liberty. Starting with the groundbreaking 1768 New York colonial elections, Minty recounts the next eight years of New York City's increasingly intense and polarized political environment.

It is difficult to find any faults or weaknesses. The book is well-organized, thoroughly researched, and makes strong arguments.

Serena Zabin, Carleton College, and author of The Boston Massacre:

In this deeply sympathetic account of loyal New Yorkers who became Loyalists, Christopher F. Minty offers a fascinating and fine-grained explanation of the process by which the city's heated partisan politics turned into irreconcilable differences. Minty immerses his readers in the world of this thoroughly British city on the eve of the American Revolution.

Benjamin L. Carp, Brooklyn College, author of The Great New York Fire of 1776:

With dazzling research, sharp insights, and gripping narrative, Unfriendly to Liberty provides a new vantage point on the New York City's streets and broadsheets, assemblies, and taverns. Christopher F. Minty challenges shallow stereotypes about revolutionary politics, finally giving a full picture not just of the New York's raucous revolutionaries but also their vigorous opponents.

Liam Riordan, University of Maine, author of Many Identities, One Nation:

An excellent book, Unfriendly to Liberty builds on fabulous and fascinating archival research. Impressive in its richness, it is a significant contribution to our understanding of how New York entered into the American Revolution and should reshape our sense of the foundations of US political culture.

Sheila L. Skemp, University of Mississippi, author of First Lady of Letters:

Unfriendly to Liberty engagingly explains the reasons that led some New York City inhabitants to retain their loyalty to the Crown in the days leading up to the American Revolution, offering readers a seamless and lively narrative that makes for an enjoyable and insightful read.