The overemphasis on the writings of the politically prominent has resulted in a distorted picture of the political thought of the American Founding. American Political Writing During the Founding Era: 1760-1805, compiled by Charles S. Hyneman and Donald S. Lutz. These beautifully produced volumes represent the most ambitious effort to date to remedy a significant [...]
Bernard Bailyn and Gordon Wood have together recaptured for us the importance of Whig political theory for our view of ourselves as a people, the initiation of the Revolution, the creation of our enduring political institutions, and the writing of our national Constitution. In doing so they have forced us to seek the origins of [...]
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, by Gordon S. Wood Bernard Bailyn and Gordon S. Wood are already regarded by professional historians as among the best of their respective generations.[1] Bailyn is credited with having significantly shifted our view of the American Revolution’s origins, and Wood [...]