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Bernard Bailyn Quotes

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.

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.

Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.57, Harvard University Press

Defiance to constituted authority leaped like a spark from one flammable area to another, growing in heat as it went.

Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.305, Harvard University Press

In no obvious sense was the American Revolution undertaken as a social revolution.

Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.302, Harvard University Press

The categories within which the colonists thought about the social foundations of politics were inheritances from classical antiquity, reshaped by seventeenth century English thought.

Bernard Bailyn (2017). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition”, p.273, Harvard University Press

Whatever deficiencies the leaders of the American Revolution may have had, reticence, fortunately, was not one of them.

"The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution". Book by Bernard Bailyn, August 1967.

The fact that the ministerial conspiracy against liberty had risen from corruption was of the utmost importance to the colonists.

Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.138, Harvard University Press

Never had Parliament or the crown, or both together, operated in actuality as theory indicated sovereign powers should.

Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.203, Harvard University Press