Short Synopsis
To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, "Fulfillment," as a Postscript. Here he discusses the intense, nation-wide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution.

Full Synopsis
To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, "Fulfillment," as a Postscript. Here he discusses the intense, nation-wide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution. This detailed study of the persistence of the nation's ideological origins adds a new dimension to the book and projects its meaning forward into vital current concerns.

"One cannot claim to understand the Revolution without having read this book." ---New York Times

"A distinguished achievement. Mr. Bailyn writes with the authority and integrity that derive from a thorough mastery of the material. His meticulous scholarship is matched with perceptive analysis." ---New York Review of Books

"Tightly written and politically sophisticated . . . In the field of American Revolutionary Studies Bailyn's book must henceforth occupy a position of first rank." ---Saturday Review

"The most brilliant study of the meaning of the Revolution to appear in a generation." ---History