The Folly of Revolution

The Folly of Revolution takes readers into a "lost" monarchical world that few Americans today would recognize. This biography examines the life and work of Thomas Bradbury Chandler, a talented, hardworking, and erudite Anglican minister from New Jersey who was also one of loyalism's fiercest advocates.

Among the early American clergy, Chandler possessed one of the church's most outstanding minds. He was an Anglican leader in the 1760s and a key strategist in the effort to strengthen the American Church of England in the years preceding the Revolution. Chandler headed the campaign to create an Anglican bishopric in America--a cause that helped inflame tensions with American radicals unhappy with British policies. And, in the 1770s, his writings provided some of the most penetrating criticisms of the American revolutionary movement, raising fundamental questions about obedience and subordination that undercut Whig assertions about republicanism and popular control. Working from Chandler's library catalog and other primary sources, S. Scott Rohrer digs deep into the origins of Chandler's thought, shedding light on an important strand of traditional values and the forces and events that helped shape it.

An intriguing and thoughtful reappraisal of a consequential figure in early American history, this biography brings renewed attention to the work of a leading loyalist. It will interest students, scholars, and lay readers interested in political and religious thought in Revolutionary-era America.