18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some Flaws, but Still a Good Work, May 16, 2000
The support community for heterosexual male transvestites in Vancouver, British Columbia, calls itself The Cornbury Society. The organization, like New York's famous Hyde Park, has taken upon itself the name of the third Earl of Clarendon, Edward Hyde, the Lord Cornbury, royal governor of New Jersey and New York from 1702 to 1708. These men, like most historians from the mid-19th century forward, believe that Governor Hyde was an exhibitionistic cross-dresser, who attended his own wife's funeral dressed in women's clothing, and cavorted about in society dressed as a woman, to the horror and condemnation of hundreds of spectators. This has been the historical legacy of Hyde for over 150 years, and it is Patricia Bonomi's task to not only refute these (and other) rumors, but illuminate the condition of politics and political discourse in the 18th century, and expose a long-standing bias in American history against royalists in general, and Tory governors in particular. She does this all in an engaging and descriptive manner, though with perhaps an insufficient degree of explanation of basic terminology and concepts (for example, she does not explain what she means by "Grub Street Press," a fundamental concept used from the first chapter forward, until page 102), and a organizational structure that seems to lack both organization and structure. There are three areas from which criticism of Governor Hyde has always stemmed. The most infamous is a portrait said to be of him, dressed in women's attire, now hanging in the halls of the New-York Historical Society, a portrait with which there is no connection to the Governor until many decades after his death. The second, and in many ways weakest, is a series of 5 letters containing rumor-mongering of the Governor's supposed cross-dressing habits. The final, and most serious, is a large group of more or less contemporary charges (primarily propagated by Lewis Morris, the man who was in line to become the royal governor of New Jersey until Hyde's father and uncle interceded) of fiscal misconduct, including accepting of bribes, mismanagement of colonial finances, and living far in excess of his position and means. Bonomi places each of these pieces of evidence into their proper political and social contexts, completely discrediting the portrait's connection to Hyde, and clarifying the difference between the rumors of the day and what actually took place. More importantly, Bonomi explains, to a certain degree, why these rumors were so prevalent, and why so many of the rumors focused on sexual innuendo. One does not need to look farther than the Monica Lewinsky scandal to see the application of Bonomi's findings to our understanding of our own time. A new form of media, greater press freedoms, and a large upheaval in the nature of political institutions and leadership are just three of many parallels between the late 17th/early 18th centuries, and the late 20th/early 21st centuries.
One might desire more from this text, however. The balance between salvaging Hyde's historical legacy and of analyzing the social context that led to the charges against him, is heavily weighted towards the former, with only one chapter dealing with issues of sexual identity and changing morals in this period. Further, Bonomi comes across not so much as a disinterested detective, but rather as defense attorney, committed to proving that Hyde wasn't a bad guy above all else. Her analysis of the letters charging Hyde with cross dressing is primarily devoted to showing why we shouldn't believe them, and little else, and such problems are scattered throughout the book. Additionally, the book lacks something of a cohesive structure, and would do well to have a more solid introduction, any kind of a conclusion, and perhaps a glossary for those readers who aren't as intimately familiar with British political history as the author herself clearly is. Still, Bonomi's book accomplishes much of what it sets out to. It exonerates Hyde, for the most part, returning the charges against him to the context that historians have stripped them from, and increasing our understanding of the political climate of the early 18th century. It is useful for any student of colonial or British politics, and for anyone interested in the forms political discourse takes. Not to mention for all the historians who have taken the charges against the Lord Cornbury at face value and perpetuated some of the most vulgar and base forms of political accusations for their readers, out of self-interest and expediency. Despite it's flaws, this book opens the door to new interpretations of colonial and British politics, and paves the way for a more responsible historical interpretation of the American past. (originally prepared for History H398, Spring 2000, Ohio State University)
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5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe, Maybe Not, October 12, 2001
By A Customer
The author argues convincingly that stories of Lord Cornbury's cross-dressing were only rumors. She offers some explanations as to why such rumors might have started but fails to consider one plausible explanation-- they were true. As evidence that the charges were untrue, the author cites the four letters which described Cornbury's behavior. Each was written by someone who disliked the colonial governor. Cornbury probably did not attend public functions in women's clothes. Rumors do tend to be embellished with each re-telling. The fact that someone has enemies, however, does not mean he can not also be a transvestite, consider J. Edgar Hoover. The fact that his enemies would be more likely to comment than his friends seems hardly surprising.
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