Buy new:
-21% $21.21
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$21.21 with 21 percent savings
List Price: $27.00

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 12 hrs 15 mins
In Stock
$$21.21 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$21.21
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$16.79
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$21.21 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$21.21
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Bernard Bailyn
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition Paperback – April 19, 2017

by Bernard Bailyn (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 267 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$21.21","priceAmount":21.21,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"21","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"21","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"qAlOUs%2Fy32ynyzn7Hwmxfvp48TVXDzn0%2FnQIWNfZM4HyznOe02lFX2ers4zoxOiG2HgnX51Ge14rGLcKmlz%2FGaHXALfgb8jEWebMAnV9TIgpqc8OydcL14fSpPYKR7Jgqz3Jw121dKFUCcyEtHBDsA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$16.79","priceAmount":16.79,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"79","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"qAlOUs%2Fy32ynyzn7Hwmxfvp48TVXDzn0RzTvb5phzze9ptq7KCyZKTo1B%2FasAM8UhIZjKdLNj%2BbxAl9flKfkLo8IgcxXgAA1b985RznvstRSvRKeBWmDGb9ml1k1RxbqSG99ptm7LQPIao4OfD6DredFyP42UHueluiuijfhZSGNrhPhwI9flA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

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 edition to include the nationwide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, hence exploring not only the Founders’ initial hopes and aspirations but also their struggle to implement their ideas in constructing the national government.

Now, in a new preface, Bernard Bailyn reconsiders salient features of the book and isolates the Founders’ profound concern with power. In pamphlets, letters, newspapers, and sermons they returned again and again to the problem of the uses and misuses of power―the great benefits of power when gained and used by popular consent and the political and social devastation when acquired by those who seize it by force or other means and use it for their personal benefit.

This fiftieth anniversary edition will be welcomed by readers familiar with Bailyn’s book, and it will introduce a new generation to a work that remains required reading for anyone seeking to understand the nation’s historical roots.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    432 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
  4. Publication date
    April 19, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.1 x 7.9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0674975650
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0674975651
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
$21.21
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Radicalism of the American Revolution
$13.25
Get it as soon as Monday, May 20
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by BEYBAGI and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787
$35.59
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In every area of Bernard Bailyn’s research―whether Virginia society of the 17th century or the schools of early America―he transformed what historians had hitherto thought about the subject. In The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, the most famous of his works, Bailyn uncovered a set of ideas among the Revolutionary generation that most historians had scarcely known existed. These radical ideas about power and liberty, and deeply rooted fears of conspiracy, had propelled Americans in the 1760s and 1770s into the Revolution, Bailyn said. His book, which won the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes in 1968, influenced an entire generation of historians. For many, it remains the most persuasive interpretation of the Revolution.”―Gordon S. Wood, Wall Street Journal

“One cannot claim to understand the Revolution without having read this book.”―New York Times Book Review

“A distinguished achievement. Mr. Bailyn writes with the authority and integrity that derive from a thorough mastery of the material. His meticulous scholarship is matched with perceptive analysis.”―New York Review of Books

“Tightly written and politically sophisticated…In the field of American Revolutionary Studies, Bailyn’s book must henceforth occupy a position of first rank.”―Saturday Review

“The most brilliant study of the meaning of the Revolution to appear in a generation.”―History

“With this reading of the American Revolutionary Experience, Mr. Bailyn has substantially and profoundly altered the nature and direction of the inquiry on the American Revolution. In the process he has also erected a new framework for interpreting the entire first half-century of American national history…A landmark in American historiography.”―American Quarterly

About the Author

Bernard Bailyn was Adams University Professor, Emeritus, and James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; 50th Anniversary ed. edition (April 19, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674975650
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674975651
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.1 x 7.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 267 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Bernard Bailyn

Bernard Bailyn

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
267 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Joe
5.0 out of 5 stars Well documented, well written and interesting!
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2022
Verified Purchase
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!
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Tom Dolan
5.0 out of 5 stars "skulking about in corners"
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2023
Verified Purchase
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."
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jim Freeman
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book on the true ideological origins of the United States
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
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.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
btrimble
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
In good shape.
Helpful
 Report
C. Wayne Swenson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Accomplishment!
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2011
Verified Purchase
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.
40 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Chavah
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2023
Verified Purchase
Must reading for every American who cares where we càme from.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
ddelaney2011
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2022
Verified Purchase
Is possibly the most profound book I have ever read. Provides vivid insight into the thinking behind the origination of American government. Highly recommended!
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
public profile name
5.0 out of 5 stars It's interesting - I promise.
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great book. Needed it to do a report on how the views of the Anti-Federalists have been viewed over time. This and Gordon Wood's book is really a must read to understand (besides primary sources) the Anti-federalist arguments and how to look at our constitutional structure.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Michael J. Espinoza
5.0 out of 5 stars The book was in excellent condition
Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2020
Verified Purchase
I am very happy with my purchase.
Report