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Quote by Bernard Bailyn

“The primary function of a constitution was to mark out the boundaries of governmental powers-hence in England, where there was no constitution , there were no limits (save for the effect of trail by jury) to what the legislature might do.”

Quote by Bernard Bailyn

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Work

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

This book delves into the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings that led to the American Revolution, examining the key thinkers and concepts that shaped the revolutionary movement. more

Author

Bernard Bailyn is an American historian renowned for his research on early American history. His works delve into the social, political, and cultural dynamics of the American Revolution and the colonial period. more

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“The idea of sovereignty current in the English speaking world of the 1760's was scarcely more than a century old. It had first emerged during the English Civil War, in the early 1640's, and had been established as a canon of Whig political thought in the Revolution of 1688.”

World Firsts Ideas War Political Century Revolution Currents Civil War Sovereignty Canon English Speaking

Author:Bernard Bailyn

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

Should Together Theory Crowns Sovereign Parliament Actuality

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“What Americans were really objecting to had nothing to do with constitutional principles. their objection was not to Parliament's constitutional right to levy certain kinds of taxes as opposed to others, but to its effort to collect any.”

Kind Certain Effort Principles Taxes Parliament Objections

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“The most powerful presentations were based on legal precedents, especially Calvin's Case (1608), which, it was claimed, proved on the authority of Coke and Bacon that subjects of the King are by no means necessarily subjects of Parliament.”

Mean Powerful Cases Subjects Kings Authority Most Powerful Parliament Presentation Coke Precedent

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“Up and down the the still sparsely settled coast of British North America, groups of men-intellectuals and farmers, scholars and merchants, the learned and the ignorant-gathered for the purpose of constructing enlightened governments.”

Men Stills Government America Purpose Groups British Ignorant Enlightened Farmers Scholar Coast Up And Down Merchants North America

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“At first the relevance of chattel slavery to libertarian ideals was noted only in individual passages of isolated pamphlets.”

Firsts Individual Ideals Slavery Libertarian Passages Isolated Relevance

Author:Bernard Bailyn

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

Social Century Foundation Categories Inheritance Antiquity Colonists

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition

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

Social Revolution Obvious American Revolution Social Revolution

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

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

Growing Authority Areas Heat Sparks Defiance

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

“What were once felt to be defects-isolation, institutional simplicity, primitiveness of manners, multiplicity of religions, weaknesses in the authority of the state-could now be seen as virtues, not only by Americans themselves but by enlightened spokesmen of reform, renewal and hope wherever they may be-in London coffeehouses, in Parisian salons, in the courts of German princes.”

May States Felt Virtue Authority Weakness Court Simplicity London Reform Manners Isolation Enlightened Defects Renewal Multiplicity Salons

Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution