The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

By: Bernard Bailyn

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, "Fulfillment", as a postscript. Here he discusses the intense nationwide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution.

This detailed study of the persistence of the nation's ideological origins adds a new dimension to the book and projects its meaning forward into vital current concerns.

©1992 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2017 Tantor

Required for citizens, politicians and jurists

Bailyn discourses on the ideological basis for the U. S. Revolution and the structure of government for a democratic republic of checks and balances. Bailyn cracks open the whole and analyzes energetically the parts. My only criticism of the Audible is Tom Perkins as a narrator. His strident nasal voice and clipped speech tried my ears almost beyond patience and endurance. Surely there could be some other person with a a smoother and more articulate sensitivity to have been selected. Perkins invaded the exposition. His edgy, bombastic tone distorts and assaults one’s concentration. This is an illuminating and compelling book. It deserves a better narrator.

A hard read but informative

This book is a hard read. It is well researched, well presented, and very informative. However, it is a hard book to listen to There is almost too much information to absorb it all in one listen.

Mommy, where did I come from and where am I going?

a prodigious review of the thinking surrounding the formation of our government and the adoption of the Constitution.

Bernard Bailyn is a genius!

Loved re-reading this and concentrating on details; history does repeat and this book reveals many of the concepts we struggle with today. Interpreting ideology and radicalism...the concept of the influence of Pamphleteers (400) and examining the15 years before the divide is remarkable. Sweeping and broad inclusion of classical scholars, period scholars and modern day scholars such as George Orwell is marvelous. Incorporations of the many institutional pressures was well balanced and not overbearing. The addition of three chapters examining the constitutional debate, between federalists and anti-federalists has whet my appetite for more. I will return to this book again and again. My only criticism is that sometimes I became lost when the narrator went between book passages and footnotes.

Well, worth your time

The more history, you learn the more we can push back against the BigFedGov taught American history, that’s taught in government schools.

only for the hard core historian

too much of a deep dive into background players in the 18th century for this lover of American history