The Jacobites /

McLynn attempts to give the general reader an account based on scholarly work of the Jacobite century (1688-1788). McLynn's underlying argument is that Britain seethed under a corrupt Whig establishment and a hated royal dynasty. Only constant and repeated bad luck prevented one of the many Jacobite uprisings from freeing Britain from the thralls of a despicable regime. McLynn, in dwelling on the ill fortunes of the Jacobites, even asserts that weather, usually storms in the Channel, was ``the staunchest friend of the Glorious Revolution.'' Jacobites are also presented as being kind to women; in espionage alone did the Whig/Hanoverians surpass their rivals. McLynn argues (as he has in The Jacobite Army in England, 1745, Edinburgh, 1983) that Charles Edward had victory in his grasp until that fateful day at Derby in December when his now-defeatist commanders forced him to retreat to Scotland. Good bibliography; no notes. College libraries have no reason to buy this book if they already possess recent works on Jacobitism.-C.L. Hamilton, Simon Fraser University