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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition Paperback – April 19, 2017

by Bernard Bailyn (Author)

4.7 267 ratings

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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, awarded both the Pulitzer and the Bancroft prizes, has become a classic of American historical literature. Hailed at its first appearance as “the most brilliant study of the meaning of the Revolution to appear in a generation,” it was enlarged in a second edition to include the nationwide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, hence exploring not only the Founders’ initial hopes and aspirations but also their struggle to implement their ideas in constructing the national government.

Now, in a new preface, Bernard Bailyn reconsiders salient features of the book and isolates the Founders’ profound concern with power. In pamphlets, letters, newspapers, and sermons they returned again and again to the problem of the uses and misuses of power―the great benefits of power when gained and used by popular consent and the political and social devastation when acquired by those who seize it by force or other means and use it for their personal benefit.

This fiftieth anniversary edition will be welcomed by readers familiar with Bailyn’s book, and it will introduce a new generation to a work that remains required reading for anyone seeking to understand the nation’s historical roots.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“In every area of Bernard Bailyn’s research―whether Virginia society of the 17th century or the schools of early America―he transformed what historians had hitherto thought about the subject. In The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, the most famous of his works, Bailyn uncovered a set of ideas among the Revolutionary generation that most historians had scarcely known existed. These radical ideas about power and liberty, and deeply rooted fears of conspiracy, had propelled Americans in the 1760s and 1770s into the Revolution, Bailyn said. His book, which won the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes in 1968, influenced an entire generation of historians. For many, it remains the most persuasive interpretation of the Revolution.”―Gordon S. Wood, Wall Street Journal

“One cannot claim to understand the Revolution without having read this book.”―New York Times Book Review

“A distinguished achievement. Mr. Bailyn writes with the authority and integrity that derive from a thorough mastery of the material. His meticulous scholarship is matched with perceptive analysis.”―New York Review of Books

“Tightly written and politically sophisticated…In the field of American Revolutionary Studies, Bailyn’s book must henceforth occupy a position of first rank.”―Saturday Review

“The most brilliant study of the meaning of the Revolution to appear in a generation.”―History

“With this reading of the American Revolutionary Experience, Mr. Bailyn has substantially and profoundly altered the nature and direction of the inquiry on the American Revolution. In the process he has also erected a new framework for interpreting the entire first half-century of American national history…A landmark in American historiography.”―American Quarterly

About the Author

Bernard Bailyn was Adams University Professor, Emeritus, and James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; 50th Anniversary ed. edition (April 19, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674975650
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674975651
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.1 x 7.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #67,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #124 in U.S. Revolution & Founding History
- #177 in History & Theory of Politics
- #1,139 in Military History (Books)

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4.7 267 ratings

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Joe

Well documented, well written and interesting!

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2022

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There is great need for a revisiting of America's founding era in these confusing and disjointed times. I found his relating the founders understanding of just how precious true liberty really is has moved me to do more research into both liberty and power. I also found the threats to liberty as described by the anti-federalists to be frighteningly relevant for today. Very good read!

5 people found this helpful

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Tom Dolan

"skulking about in corners"

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2023

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In his Preface to the 2017 edition of this book, the author cuts in, pulls out, and shows to us the very heart of the matter:

"Of all my impressions on re-reading the book [fifty years after its first publication], the MOST VIVID is the Americans' obsession with Power. It was not one among many concerns; it was their central concern. Power and its ravages engrossed their minds; they wrote about it again and again, elaborately and imaginatively -- in pamphlets, letters, newspapers, sermons -- in any medium available."

"Power, they wrote, . . . is dominating[.] Liberty, its opposite, could not strongly stand before it. For, liberty, as John Adams put it, always 'skulking about in corners,' was, in its nature, delicate and sensitive, weak in the presence of power. It was to overcome the dark, engrossing force of power that all efforts to liberate mankind had been directed."

Chapter III ("POWER AND LIBERTY") provides depth and detail. In a nutshell:

"Power . . . meant dominion of some men over others, the human control of human life: ultimately force, compulsion. . . . Most commonly the discussion of power centered on its essential characteristics of aggressiveness : its endlessly propulsive tendency to expand itself beyond legitimate boundaries.

"What gave transcendent importance to the aggressiveness of power was the fact that its natural prey, its necessary victim, was liberty, or law, or right.

"The world . . . was divided into distinct, contrasting, innately antagonistic spheres: the sphere of power and the sphere of liberty or right. The one was brutal, ceaselessly active, and heedless; the other was delicate, passive, and sensitive. The one must be resisted; the other defended."

THE BACK COVER wraps this book up with the critically important distinction between "the uses and misuses of power -- the great benefits of power when gained and used by popular consent [versus] the political and social [not to mention psychological and emotional] devastation when [power is] acquired by those who seize it by force OR BY OTHER MEANS and use it for THEIR OWN PERSONAL BENEFIT."

3 people found this helpful

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Jim Freeman

Fantastic book on the true ideological origins of the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2022

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The 1619 Project is an atrocious lie. This book is the antidote. It's extraordinarily well-researched, thoughtful, and a very easy read. I recommend this to anyone who has questions about why the nation's founders made the choices and compromises they made, in the heat of war, in founding the United States. Fantastic book.

10 people found this helpful

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btrimble

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2018

In good shape.

A Stunning Accomplishment!

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2011

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Brilliant. Provocative. Complex. Illuminating. The list of favorable adjectives applicable to Professor Bailyn's seminal work is nearly infinite. Subsequent to an exhaustive examination of colonial literature, namely pamphlets, Professor Bailyn describes the evolution of colonial ideology which, he argues, led directly to the American Revolution. Professor Bailyn begins with an introduction to the ideological sources which shaped and developed colonial revolutionary thought. He describes, at length, the impact of 17th and 18th century opposition writing in England upon colonial ideology, especially "Whig" ideology. He then details how the American press widely distributed this ideology throughout the colonies. In addition, Professor Bailyn highlights the importance of classical Roman thought and English common law upon the colonists' revolutionary thinking. Professor Bailyn contends that the combination of these libertarian sources provided the spark for the "shot heard round the world. An extremely complex examination, albeit imminently readable, the Ideological Origins of the American Revolution is a most read for serious study of the reasons for the colonists' decision to break away from the patronage of the British Empire.

40 people found this helpful

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Chavah

Perfect

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2023

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Must reading for every American who cares where we càme from.

2 people found this helpful

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ddelaney2011

Wow!

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2022

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Is possibly the most profound book I have ever read. Provides vivid insight into the thinking behind the origination of American government. Highly recommended!

3 people found this helpful

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public profile name

It's interesting - I promise.

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2015

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Great book. Needed it to do a report on how the views of the Anti-Federalists have been viewed over time. This and Gordon Wood's book is really a must read to understand (besides primary sources) the Anti-federalist arguments and how to look at our constitutional structure.

3 people found this helpful

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