The Book Prize Index

The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson

Bernard Bailyn

“This book,” Bernard Bailyn writes, “depicts the fortunes of a conservative in a time of radical upheaval and deals with problems of public disorder and ideological commitment.” It is at the same time a dramatic account of the origins of the American Revolution from the viewpoint, not of the winners who became the Founding Fathers, but of the losers, the Loyalists. By portraying the ordeal of the last civilian royal governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Bailyn explains “what the human reality was against which the victors struggled” and in doing so makes the story of the Revolution fuller and more comprehensible.

HistoryAmerican History · medium confidenceAmerican History81 signalsLlm Classifier: American History -> American HistoryOpen Library: Hutchinson, thomas, 1711-1780 -> BiographyKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryConstitutional History

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
National Book Award for HistoryMajor1975WinnerSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Thomas Hutchinson78%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The book explains the origins of the American Revolution by portraying the human reality faced by Loyalists, exemplified through the ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, rather than focusing on the victors.

    Model confidence 72%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    68 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.