Although I haven’t had the privilege of teaching a course on the American Revolution for a few years, this semester I’m leading a graduate student on an independent study of the Revolution, and among the books we’re reading is Bernard Bailyn’s The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.  Because it’s insights have become so central to much of how we think about the Revolution, it’s hard to remember just how pathbreaking the book was. Just as amazing are its flaws, which, even in its original forward, were on display for everyone to see, had they only looked. Read more