Ideas, Ideology, and the Anomalous Problem of Revolutionary Causation

Abstract

When properly taught, the arguments of The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution pivot on three issues; (1) how a Radical Whig ideology explains increasing American resistance after 1765; (2) how colonial and imperial differences on ideas such as representation, the nature of a constitution, and sovereignty illustrate the ways American governance had diverged from British antecedents; and (3), how Loyalists’ failure to recognize the depth of grievances demonstrates what Bailyn called “the [Revolution's] transforming radicalism.”