The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Rating:
Summary: Masterful Work
Review: Bernard Bailyn's "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" is a truly masterful work. Bailyn gets to the heart of the radicalism of the American Revolution: a deep suspicion of government power, particularly centralizing power.

I also must agree with reviewer Ken Riley about the non-influence of Christianity in revolutionary thought. Bailyn shows the the Enlightenment influence of Locke, Montesquieu, Algernon Sidney, Harrington, and even Rousseau. The attempt of fundamentalist Christians to portray the Founders as evangelicals and the Revolution as a Christian revival is both dishonest and criminal. This book was written long before such right-wing nonsense became popular. The American Revolution was an Enlightenment revolution and the most radical of all modern revolutions. Bailyn clearly shows the ideological ideals as one of liberty, freedom, suspicion of all government power, the ancient rights of Englishmen, and the sovereignty of the people.

These rights are traced back to ancient Roman law, Anglo-Saxon law,and as stated by another reviewer Danelaw. Nowhere are there references to the book of Exodus,Deuteronomy. or Leviticus as the source of anglo american philosophy. Conservative and religious fanatics who peddle their version of history are either lying or totally ignorant of the truth. Bailyn smashes all of these false theories and presents the origins of the Revolution in all it's glory.

Rating:
Summary: The flaws in the crystal
Review: I don't deny that this book is excellent work about American Revolution. Other reviewers wrote about the greatness of this book. Though I admit that points, I want to bring forward a few questions. First, was the Revolution done by elites alone? Baylin does not explain how the ideology spread among the masses. In any revolution, the role of people cannot be ignored - possibly the most important of all. He should have explained the phase of contagion of liberty to the below, in chapter VI 'the contagion of Liberty.' Second, was the eighteenth century an age of ideology?(in the end of chapter IV) In the viewpoint of an Asian, that premise is the means of justification of the Revolution. Did American in that age really think highly of liberty and justice? Then, why did they break the Molasses Act(1733) and smuggle? Why did they still exploit African-Americans as slaves and drive away the native Americans? Everybody knows that not a few the advocates of the Revolution depended on slavery for their farms. Third, is Baylin free from the criticism that he is concentrating the whole matters of Revolotion on the matter of Ideology? Of course, in chapter IV he mentions socio-economic side focusing the taxation. But this is the setting for explanation of the current of thought. Baylin himself makes it clear that 'the nucleus of this book is sources and patterns of ideas' in the foreword. Nevertheless, this book is great. Daringly I criticized the masterpiece of a great scholar, because I cannot express all of the beauty of this book with my poor English.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Hard Read
Review: I picked this book up at my local Half Price Books new for about $5 (why it's so expensive here, I don't know). I was psyched to read it. I had read a few books on the ideological wars after the revolution, and was eager to get a perspective on pre-revolutionary thought. I got myself in over my head.

A lot of the books is really rough to get through. If you are looking for a scholarly book, this may satisfy, but I was looking for something to read over Christmas and relax doing it. I was hoping for something along the lines of "Founding Brothers." What I got threw me back to my college days where I worked to get through every paragraph. This time it wasn't so bad because I knew I wasn't going to be tested on it.

Anyway, the book has a ton of information, and it is definitely on my shelf should I ever decide to take a crack at it again.

To those reading it for the first time, be wary of the first chapters; they are long and for the most part dry. The last chapter really engages thoughts that are relevant today (remember how long ago this book was written). The last chapter was worth my $5, but I'm not sure the whole book is worth what Amazon is asking.

Rating:
Summary: Ideological Origins
Review: Ideological Origins of the American Revolution is vintage Bernard Bailyn. His mastery of the subject is evident throughout the book, and the levels of his intellect keep growing with each successive reading. Bailyn uses English political theory as the basis for the American colonial governments, then shows how that theory was adapted to the unique situation of each colony.

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the American Revolution. Bailyn's writing style is complex, but so is the subject matter, and Bailyn's effort is remarkably profound. Intellectual history is a Bailyn specialty, and this book stands with any other on the topic.

Rating:
Summary: One of the great books on the American Revolution
Review: Long before there were bloggers and political pundits there were the pamphleteers. Bernard Bailyn shows just how important pamphleteering was in getting the message out. Take Tom Paine's Common Sense for instance. More than 200,000 copies were distributed throughout the colonies, making it a runaway bestseller in its day. He championed universal suffrage, the unicameral legislature and a clean break from England. He was countered by John Adams, who, in Thoughts on Government, felt a more prudent course was in order. Bailyn gleens from these famous pamphlets and many others and presenting a very compelling history of the American Revolution. It was a revolution in thought as well as government, that eventually saw Adams' Federalist ideas seize the upper hand. But, Pennsylvania initially adopted many of Paine's ideas, creating the only unicameral legislature in the United States, and extending voting rights to most men.

My book is heavily tagged, because there is so much to draw from these pages. Bailyn lays the foundations for the political discourse that would shape our nation. At times this discourse could be quite vehement in its pronouncements and its denunciations. It was never boring. Tom Paine emerges as one of the heros in this book, championing The Rights of Man, which have a far greater impact 50 years later when Andrew Jackson rode into the White House declaring himself a champion of the common man.

Rating:
Summary: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Review: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn is smartly written with political sophistication towards the American Revolution. If a person studies the American Revolution you have to read this book... for without reading this you will have a difficult time understanding the emergence of eighteenth-century thought on the why the revolution came about.

Documentation is there for reference as well as the American ideological positions which can be found fully formed as far back as 1730's. This is a good solid work and should be on all bookshelves of anyone who studies the American Revolution and the Men who strongly believed in it. A good starting point.

Well done and outstanding... eminetly fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Romans, Saxon, Montesquieu, and Revolution
Review: There is an unfortunate, somewhat politically correct, movement today attempting to 'prove' that the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, were motivated by, and the documents based on, the Bible and Christianity.

This forlorn hope relies on tenuous ties to Biblical scripture to illustrate sections of both documents, and the alleged religious piety of the Founders. This is not only bad history, but it is nonsense and is giving a false picture of the background, motivation, and ultimate success of the American Revolutionaries. They are being misquoted, misrepresented, and quite frankly, lied about.

This excellent volume, written before all the present quasi religious whoop-de-do, dispels all of these misbegotten theories and presents in clear, concise, and documented prose what motivated the Founders to start a Revolution against the mother country and set out on 'the noble experiment.'

Bailyn is a noted historian, an accurate researcher, and a careful analyst of historic events. This is one of the best books on the American Revolution that has been written in the last fifty years. The author painstakingly takes the reader through the development of Enlightenment thought, the Founders preoccupation with classical antiquity, and where their theories of independence, the rights of man, and government came from and how they developed.

What they wrought was not a state founded on religion or religiuos principles, but on English Common Law, which had as its antecedents Roman Law, Saxon Law, and the Danelaw, none of which were based either on the Bible or on Christianity in any of its forms. What Bailyn has given us is a clear and concise history of the Founders that needs to be read and studied by present and future citizens to understand our bdginnings as a nation.

Rating:
Summary: This book is poetry
Review: This book is completely captivating, from front to cover. Anyone who loves ideas should read this book; it shows the power of ideas and how they shape our nation's Founding. In it, Bailyn traces the intellectual twists and turns that shaped America in the years leading to revolution and beyond. Nonetheless, it is open to criticism because it focuses almost exclusively on ideas, to the detriment of a discussion of social conditions. To some extent, these criticisms are valid: people aren't always rational and don't follow intellectual necessity. But still, as an account of the American Revolution as intellectual movement, it is sublime.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing discussion of american revolutionary thought.
Review: This book is one of the best books I have ever read on the subject matter of American Revolutionary thought. Bailyn masterfully synthesises the source material to show the influences and assumptions the founding fathers and people of america were working under. He shows how they essentially took the thought process of the previous 100 years of English thought to the next logic conclusion for their situation. He shows how they didn't break from the past but harnessed it to their needs. Of course, the other large conclusion one takes from the book is just how much the thoughts behind the revolution were affected by Enlightenment thought: Montesqui, Locke, the ancient romans, and how little christianity influenced it in any substantive way. The obvious 'flaw' of this book is how it essentially ignores the questions of socio-economics and of how the founding fathers 'betrayed' their ideals on the question of slavery. But, I would contend that both are outside the realm of the argument. Socio-economics are obviously important but do not explain the forms that ideology take. and the betrayel of slavery is essentially a story of the constitution and the great sectional compromise, not of revolutionary idealogy. All in all, an excellent source of what our founding fathers were thinking when they founded the country.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece with enduring insight and value
Review: This book is superb in that it ties together the varied strains of thought that provoked American revolutionaries, and eventualy formed the core of the American political perspective. Throughout my study of American history, I find that in all eras, the perspective Bailyn describes is an essential characteristic. In particular, the nature of many conteperary political issues becomes clear after reading Bailyn's exposition on America's founding ideals. Furthermore, it is well organized and quite readable.