"These well-argued essays represent the first sustained and systematic attempt to provide a comprehensive and integrated analysis of all elements of American political life during the late colonial period."--The New York Historical Society Quarterly

 
Bernard Bailyn, a professor emeritus of history at Harvard University, was named 1998 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities, the U.S. government's highest honor for achievement in that area of study, by the National Endowment for the Humanities.