The American historian Bernard Bailyn, who died of heart failure at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts, this summer, was a giant of historical scholarship. After receiving his PhD from Harvard in 1953, Bailyn taught there for nearly a half century until 1991. Bailyn remained active well into retirement. His last book, Illuminating History: A Retrospective of Seven Decades, was published shortly before his death. Part memoir, part essay collection, Illuminating History is a historian’s meditation on the craft and occasional art of historical writing, the role of chance in the archive, and the crucial assistance of colleagues and academic communities in the pursuit of knowledge about the past.
During his seven decades in the profession, Bailyn wrote or edited more than twenty books and numerous articles on American and Atlantic history. His breakthrough came with The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967). The book became so famous that historians dedicated an entire conference to its fiftieth anniversary in 2017. In this watershed study, Bailyn challenged the then-prevailing view, promoted by Progressive Era historians like Charles Beard, that America’s Founders decided for independence to protect their economic well-being. Not so, Bailyn argued: America’s Founders were first and foremost animated by fear of British tyranny and a fervent belief in republicanism and liberty. Drawing on radical pamphlets from the revolutionary era, Bailyn’s research shifted academic understanding and engaged the public.
When considering the legacy of an intellectual giant, students are no less critical than is scholarship. Those who stand on Bailyn’s shoulders include eminent historians Gordon S. Wood, Mary Beth Norton, Pauline Maier, Jack N. Rakove, Richard D. Brown, and Richard L. Bushman. These famous students represent only a sliver of Bailyn’s contributions, though. As Bailyn’s colleague Emma Rothschild remarked, his career was enriched by a “limitlessly curious” disposition and abiding interest in people.
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