Today in 1787 the US constitution was approved.
Faces of
Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence -
Bernard Bailyn
Bernard Bailyn is a Harvard professor emeritus whose
specialty is U.S. Colonial and Revolutionary-era history. Though he has
appeared on The Brian Lamb Channel only once, he is a winner of two Pulitzers,
a National Book Award, a National Humanities Medal and a Bancroft, which may
mean nothing to the lay public but is the most prestigious prize among American
historians.
This 1990 book is a collection of nine essays on the
Revolution and one on the Constitution. Bailyn’s basic thesis is that the
passionate ideology in favor of liberty and the spirit of individualism
motivated the British Americans to revolt against the central authority of the
crown.
In the essays about John Adams, Tom Paine and Harbottle
Dorr, Bailyn shows that revolutionaries convinced themselves and others that
evil ministers crafted British policies in order to enslave the colonists. The
essay on Tom Paine argues that the power of the pamphlet Common
Sense comes from its fiery arguments
against colonists' fundamental anxieties about severing ties with The Mother
Country. In these biographical sketches Bailyn explains the personalities and
motivations of leaders and lesser figures (three essays cover religious figures
who felt ambivalent about the Revolution) and how their psychology, or will,
influenced their behavior.
Bailyn holds the point of view that the less important
causes of the Revolution were social factors - such as the differing interests between
elites, rich merchants, a struggling middle class, and the poor and vulnerable.
I especially liked the article on Tory official Thomas
Hutchinson, who is mainly remembered for being reviled by John Adams. I also
enjoyed the piece about the difficult figure of Thomas Jefferson, whom Bailyn
thinks is a mediocre thinker but an extremely pragmatic politician. The piece
on the momentous year of 1776 brings together what thinking readers already know
in new, provocative ways. The final essay covers the anti-Federalists’
criticisms of the Constitution and thus delves in the tension between lofty
political philosophy and grubby political decision-making.
Bailyn’s prose has more style than we expect from a
professor. He makes clear difficult ideas and seems impartial to all sides. Lay
readers – like me - will be challenged but rewarded.
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