Title: Sound data and dramatic narrative
Product review: Leiby's book draws on a range of primary sources and concentrates on the Hackensack River Valley in New Jersey (extending up to Rockland County, NY). Few modern books go into as much detail for this region as does Leiby. His documentation is sound and he uses it to construct a dramatic narrative of the Revolutionary period. Excellent also for genealogists. However, genealogists may sometimes be a little frustrated that Leiby chose the most archaic form of each surname rather than attempt to arbitrate the most "accurate" spelling.One serious complaint, from the perspective of an historian, is that Leiby sometimes seems methodologically naive in his nearly uncritical support for the American side. He does not try to understand the Loyalists. Many of them were decent people, as demonstrated by books such as Philip Ranlet's The New York Loyalists. I think Leiby's book would have been much richer for it. Leiby is definitely worth reading.
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