Ideological Origins of the American Revolution Books

Ideological Origins of the American Revolution Books

Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

An acclaimed study of the intellectual basis for the revolt.

Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence (1922)

Becker covers the drafting of the document and its political philosophy.

T. H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (2004)

Though historians traditionally examined the political ideology and intellectual forebears of the elite Founding Fathers, Breen instead analyses the way that common purchasing practices provided the groundwork for solidarity-in-boycotting, which in turn began the Revolution.

David N. Mayer, The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson (1995)

An excellent examination of the foundational texts and inspirations as well as the ideological basis for his seminal works.

Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (2007)

A fantastic narrative history of the conflict from one of its preeminent historians.

Gary B. Nash, The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth ofDemocracy and the Struggle to Create America (2005)

A revisionist take on the conflict from UCLA historian Nash, who incorporates Native Americans as central figures in the war and who depicts it not as the mythical "glorious cause" of legend, but as a bloody and chaotic clash between two sides, each with constantly shifting alliances.