Why read The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution?

Book cover of The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Book description

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…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Jim Piecuch

Author

This is the book that sparked my interest in the American Revolution. I’d been taught in school and always heard that the Americans rebelled because of high taxes imposed by the British government, but Bailyn showed this wasn’t the case. I was surprised to learn that the various taxes were quite small and that it was the mindset of the colonists, influenced by British writers, that caused them to see the taxes as signs of a larger effort to take away their liberty.

By the time I finished the book, I was convinced that the author had found the key…

From Jim's list on The best books on the American Revolution that don’t tell the same old story.

Joel Richard Paul

Author

Bernard Bailyn studied the political pamphlets that persuaded people that the Revolutionary War was worth fighting. Bailyn explains why a relatively minor British tax fanned the flames of revolution, and how profound political philosophy was translated into common language. This is an important book that reveals the origins of our revolution. There’s a good reason it won the Pulitzer Prize.

From Joel's list on The best books on the American Revolution from an American historian.