Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution **** 1/2

This book provides a history of the ideas that lead to the American Revolution -- about sovereignty, representation, and of course liberty. It doesn't cover the events of the Revolution; in fact, it assumes that you are familiar with them already.

The reader's experience is in many ways the reverse of the colonists' experience. Bailyn deconstructs notions that we now take for granted and shows how they developed from earlier assumptions; the older ideas are the ones that seem new to us.

The two things that surprised me most were the extent to which English opposition writers influenced American public opinion and the respect everyone had for the English constitution. We really wanted to remain British citizens! If only there weren't a conspiracy in the British government to topple the balance of forces between the Crown, Parliament, and the people.

I was also surprised by how forcefully Bailyn presents the anti-federalist case when discussing the ratification of the Constitution. Forming a federal government really did feel like a repudiation of the achievements of the Revolution, and it was not at all clear the system would work.