The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition

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!

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.

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."

In good shape.

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.

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

Comprehensive, authoritative, Bailyn brings history alive in a personally human way, an exceptional book! This should be added to the curriculum in high school and college.

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

I am very happy with my purchase.