The American Revolution By Bernard Bailyn And John Phillip Reid

1072 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Liberty as a necessity

Bernard Bailyn and John Phillip Reid both engage in a definitional conversation over the concepts and origins upon which the 18th century American Revolution is founded upon, paying particular attention to the perceptions of liberty. In The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bernard Bailyn argues that the primary motivations and concepts of liberty of the founding fathers were not primarily economic or political, but ideological, stemming from the fear that the corruption of English politics would result in tyranny, eventually destroying liberty and freedom in the colonies. Though he acknowledges the influence of philosophies such as classical antiquity, enlightenment thought, and English common law, he maintains that they were …show more content…

He observed that the American revolutionaries shared a common understanding of liberty and constitution not only with the radical British Whigs, but also with the ministry of Lord North. Reid refers to this understanding as common law constitutionalism with the chief principle being liberty. This liberty was claimed as a natural birth right and duty to protect, its bane was licentiousness, its opposite slavery, arbitrary power its antithesis, and law as its foundation. To Reid, the influence of British common law surpassed the impact of people such as Lock and …show more content…

However this only assumes that there is a link between print culture and the people. In this sense, Bailyn only loosely demonstrates the association between pamphlets and popular ideology. While Bailyn presents a strong case for ideology as a concept, his major drawback is that although pamphlets were central to the rebellion and the expression of classical republican theory in the colonies, they are not substantial enough to effectively explain the process of an egalitarian cultural transformation. His pamphlet examples tend to describe, rather than represent the

Show More
Related

  • Gordon Wood's Revolutionary Characters

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American fight for freedom is a critical part of the American history. Following the foundation of a nation, the individuals who enabled the fight for freedom and were central in the fight called the founding fathers. In the book ‘Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different’, the author provides a vivid investigation of the founding fathers. The book offers a unique point of view that looks on to the founding fathers’ live in detail. The book offers knowledge that extends beyond what is availed into the history books into an analysis of character to present their individual values as a system in which they founded guiding principles for the country. The paper offer an analysis of ‘Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different’. Gordon Wood brings to light the ethical principles of the founding fathers to bring to light the basis of moral statures propagated and applied in the democratic system today despite the difference in time.

    Read More

  • The Political Thought Of The American Revolution By Clinton Rossiter

    2116 Words  | 5 Pages

    He believes that many revolutions beyond the American Revolution sought after the same success the Americans had when defeating the British, and based their political thought on America’s political thought. Rossiter wrote The Political Thought of the American Revolution to reiterate the political values and the basis of the American thought during the Revolutions, in hopes that it could be useful to modern revolutionaries, or at least aid in the understanding of the American revolutionary mindset that led the country to a victory against a dominant world power. Through writing The Political Thought of the American Revolution, Rossiter was able to prove his idea that the political thought of America during the American Revolution “has the ring of both eternity and universality”. (Preface, viii).” The author, Clinton Rossiter, was influenced by his life when writing the book The Political Thought of the American Revolution.

    Read More

  • Respectability: Politics in Early America in Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ellis Starts off his book with a request to the reader to consider the American Revolution not only as how we see it today, but how it would of looked to the founders, and what actually happened. He introduces you to some of the key figures in the founding of our country and the idea that some of the founders found the successful creation of the United States as inevitable conclusion. Ellis highlights some of the dangers of what the founders did along with the improbability of the “miracle at Philadelphia”. H...

    Read More

  • Edmund S. Morgan's The Birth Of The Republic

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Birth of the Republic, 1763–89, Edmund S. Morgan demonstrates how the unlawful taxation by the British government launched a movement, known famously today as the American Revolution. By demonstrating how the founding fathers did not rely solely on theory, but turned towards their own personal needs, Morgan paints a picture about how the founding fathers used the constitution for personal gain, along with various other political documents.

    Read More

  • Thomas Paine Declaration Of Independence Analysis

    1621 Words  | 4 Pages

    Six months before the Declaration of Independence is written in 1776, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is published, causing a substantial amount of colonists to rebel against the British once and for all. This radical document doesn’t just sell 120,000 in a few months, it changes colonists’ thoughts and outlook regarding the British monarchy, and ultimately pushes the colonies towards independence from Great Britain. His pamphlet starts with a more hypothetical approach about government and religion, then transforms into the detailed problems between Britain and its colonies.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Nature And Extent Of Parliamentary Power

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    William Hicks; an early colonist from New York; composed a pamphlet called “ The Nature and Extent of Parliamentary Power” in 1768. Hicks argues that England’s parliament, and untimely the king, is trying to suppress the colonies’ liberties and to force the colonies into submission as the crown's slaves. Hicks wrote there were two opinions that the colonies could have chosen: to be submissive to the crown and become slaves or to rise against the crown, in order to liberate American’s liberty. Bernard Bailyn, author of “ The Ideological Origins of The American Revolution”, states that early colonies’ pamphlet captured the mindset and ideologies at the period of time. In hicks’ pamphlets is the ideology of a revolution because it gives details

    Read More

  • Common Sense: The Stamp Act And The Boston Tea Party

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American Revolution was a key moment in the history of the country, it went on to dictate the foundations on which the country would base its future off of. Without the revolution, the Americans would not have separated from England and their political, Ideological, and economical beliefs. The conflict regarding those three beliefs was the base of the revolution and caused a great number of events such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Act and the Boston tea Party. As well serving as the inspiration for the Declaration of Independence and Common Sense by Thomas Paine, and influenced the French and Indian war. The American colonist’s political and economical incentive for independence can be considered ‘common sense’, but the ideological

    Read More

  • Atlantic Revolutions

    1803 Words  | 4 Pages

    The American Revolution was marked by the colonies’ independence from Britain. This separation pronounced a new age marked by a decisive political change in the colonies because of the implementation of the Enlightenment ideals and the continuation of English liberties. However, the American Revolution was considered a conservative movement because it “originated from an effort to preserve the existing liberties of the colonies rather than create new ones” (Strayer, 782). Furthermore, the revolution occurred not on the issue of taxation, but on the issue of representation. The colonists believed autonomy was part of their birthright and as Englishmen along with their economic rights and their “natural rights to life, liberty, and property” (Kramnick, Lockean Liberalism). These two sentiments can be seen in their famous slogan “No taxation without representation”. By challenging their economic interests, their established traditions of local autonomy, and their identity as true Englishmen, the colonists were truly infuriated. Thus the American Revolution didn’t grow out of the social tensions within the colonies but rather from an unexpected effort by the British government to tighten its control over the colonies and ex...

    Read More

  • Enlightenment Influences on American Ideals

    1182 Words  | 3 Pages

    By the late eighteenth century, the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason as it was called had begun to rapidly spread across Europe. People began believing in the ideals of popular government, the centrality of economics to politics, secularism, and progress. This cultural movement was sparked by intellectuals and commonwealth thinkers such as the influential writer John Locke and the famous scientist Isaac Newton, both who emphasized the fact that man, by the use of reason, would be able to solve all of his problems-whether it be problems with the government, morals or the society. However, these ideals weren’t just limited to the European nations where they had first begun. On the other side of the world, off in the United States, American intellectuals began to reason with these ideas as well. As a result, the influence on the profound of modern economic and political thought had a huge impact on the United States, resulting in one of the most important documents in known in American history; the Constitution.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of American Sphinx By Joseph J. Ellis

    1477 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, the author 's interpretations of Jefferson 's decisions and their connection to modern politics are intriguing, to say the least. In 1774, Jefferson penned A Summary View of the Rights of British America and, later, in 1775, drafted the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (Ellis 32-44). According to Ellis, the documents act as proof that Jefferson was insensitive to the constitutional complexities a Revolution held as his interpretation of otherwise important matters revolved around his “pattern of juvenile romanticism” (38). Evidently, the American colonies’ desire for independence from the mother country was a momentous decision that affected all thirteen colonies. However, in Ellis’ arguments, Thomas Jefferson’s writing at the time showed either his failure to acknowledge the severity of the situation or his disregard of the same. Accordingly, as written in the American Sphinx, Jefferson’s mannerisms in the first Continental Congress and Virginia evokes the picture of an adolescent instead of the thirty-year-old man he was at the time (Ellis 38). It is no wonder Ellis observes Thomas Jefferson as a founding father who was not only “wildly idealistic” but also possessed “extraordinary naivete” while advocating the notions of a Jeffersonian utopia that unrestrained

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The American Revolution: A History By Gordon Wood

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    When one explains his or her ingenious yet, enterprising interpretation, one views the nature of history from a single standpoint: motivation. In The American Revolution: A History, Gordon Wood, the author, explains the complexities and motivations of the people who partook in the American Revolution, and he shows the significance of numerous themes, that emerge during the American Revolution, such as democracy, discontent, tyranny, and independence. Wood’s interpretation, throughout his literary work, shows that the true nature of the American Revolution leads to the development of United State’s current government: a federal republic. Wood, the author, views the treatment of the American Revolution in the early twentieth century as scholastic yet, innovative and views the American Revolution’s true nature as

    Read More

  • Was The American Revolution Radical Or Conservative

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    ​ The American revolutionaries played a critical role in fighting for the liberty of the American people. They were interested in protecting the rights of the people by implementing the high-law principles that govern the people’s natural rights. The radicalism in the country’s revolution was tempered by the failure of the founders to extend the political rights to that naturally deserved the rights. On the other hand, the British were vigilant in protecting their system by safeguarding their customs and traditions as stipulated in the British law. Americans were agitated to fight for their rights. This paper aims at assessing whether

    Read More

  • The Arguments of Thomas Paine and James Chalmers Over the Revolutionary War

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Revolutionary War was one of America’s earliest battles and one of many. Although, many came to America to gain independence from Great Britain many still had loyalty for the King and their laws. Others believed that America needs to be separated from Great Britain and control their own fate and government. I will analyze the arguments of Thomas Paine and James Chalmers. Should America be sustained by Great Britain or find their own passage?

    Read More

  • Son of the Revolution by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    "You're a human being, not an animal. You have the right to be loved" (262). "Son of the Revolution" by Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro was a book that showed how inhumane many of the aspects of Chinese life were during the Cultural Revolution. The book followed Liang Heng through many of his childhood memories to his departure from China in his twenties. The book applied a real face to the important movements during the Cultural Revolution, the effects that "the cult of Mao" had on society and Heng, and the way the period affected Heng's personal family life.

    Read More

  • The Economic Causes Of The American Revolution

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    To this day, the American Revolution stands out as a pivotal moment in the emergence of the United States of America. The eighteen year struggle between Great Britain and the thirteen American colonies exemplified the power of will through the defeat of the strongest military force of the time. The American Revolution is often deducted down into the fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or property. Yes, these Lockean philosophies played a crucial part in the revolution but they were not the sole motive in pursuing independence. Before convincing ideology was introduced, money and economics stood at the center of the unsound relationship between Britain and the colonies. After the Seven Years’ War, Britain was in a very delicate economic situation. Though they were regarded as the “world’s great commercial and imperial nation”, the depletion of their national funds paired with immense debts and new responsibilities created tensions that largely affected the American colonies. The resulting pressure placed on the colonial economy by the British Parliament sparked criticisms that, eventually, transformed into the full-blown revolution known today. Money set the foundation for the revolution that ideology eventually developed and validated. The economic restrictions enacted by the British government

    Read More

More about The American Revolution By Bernard Bailyn And John Phillip Reid

Open Document