He notes that these late colonial authors almost invariably cited classical writers and thinkers, but sometimes in a superficial way, like window dressing. Bailyn notes the wide range of sources they invoked to make their arguments, first in opposition to imperial controls from London, then for independence, and finally for the kind of government they wished to erect. The founding fathers were nothing if not literate. This was the genesis of his seminal work The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, published in 1967. And, in going over the pamphlets, Bailyn became fascinated by the sources of the arguments the Americans employed and cited. They permitted their authors to explain not only what they supported as the crisis with Great Britain unfolded, but why they supported it. Pamphlets were common in those days, the mid-eighteenth century equivalent of a blog: affordable, accessible and, most of all, explanatory. In the 1960s, Bernard Bailyn was invited to edit some late colonial pamphlets for publication.
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