World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Bernard Bailyn

バーナード・ベイリン

Bernard Bailyn

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1922-09-09 （Hartford, Connecticut）
Died
2020-08-07 （Belmont, Massachusetts） age 97
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Judaism
Residence History
Hartford (birthplace) → Williams College (student) → Cambridge / Harvard University (long-term residence and workplace) → Belmont (later life)

Career

Occupations
Historian, Author, Professor
Active Years
1945-2020
Affiliations
Harvard University
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow), American Philosophical Society (Member)
Influenced By
Perry Miller, Samuel Eliot Morison, Oscar Handlin
Influenced
Gordon S. Wood, Pauline Maier, Michael Kammen, Jack N. Rakove

Education

Williams College
Degree: BA
Period: 1941–1945
Year of Graduation: 1945
Country: United States
Received Bachelor of Arts
Harvard University
History
Degree: PhD
Period: 1948–1953
Year of Graduation: 1953
Country: United States
Received Ph.D.; mentors included Perry Miller, Samuel Eliot Morison, Oscar Handlin

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for History
1968
Work: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Organization: The Pulitzer Prizes
Result: 受賞
Pulitzer Prize for History
1987
Work: Voyagers to the West
Organization: The Pulitzer Prizes
Result: 受賞
Bancroft Prize
1968
Work: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Organization: Bancroft Prize (Columbia University)
Result: 受賞
National Book Award (History)
1975
Work: The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson
Category: History
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: 受賞
National Humanities Medal
2010
Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Result: 受賞
Golden Plate Award
1988
Organization: Academy of Achievement
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

1967 Intellectual history / Political ideas

A landmark study analyzing pre-Revolutionary pamphlets and political writings to demonstrate that ideas of liberty and republicanism were central motivating forces behind the American Revolution.

RepublicanismConcepts of libertyPolitical ideology

The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson

1974 Biography / History

A study of Thomas Hutchinson, the royal governor of Massachusetts, examining his life and role and the conflicts of power and loyalty during the Revolutionary era. Winner of the National Book Award in History.

Loyalty and powerColonial administration

Voyagers to the West

1986 Migration history / Social history

Examines migration to British North America on the eve of the Revolution, analyzing population flows and social change in early America. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

ImmigrationDemographyCultural contact

The Barbarous Years

2012 Early American history / Atlantic history

Reexamines the peopling and conflicts of British North America between 1600 and 1675 from an Atlantic perspective.

Colonial formationClash of civilizationsAtlantic history

Bibliography

  • The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century (1955)
  • Massachusetts Shipping, 1697–1714 (1959, with Lotte Bailyn)
  • Pamphlets of the American Revolution, 1750-1776 (editor)
  • The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)
  • The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (1974)
  • The Great Republic (co-author, 1977)
  • Voyagers to the West (1986)
  • Faces of Revolution (1990)
  • The Debate on the Constitution (editor, 1993)
  • To Begin the World Anew (2003)
  • Atlantic History: Concept and Contours (2005)
  • The Barbarous Years (2012)
  • Sometimes an Art: Nine Essays on History (2015)
  • Illuminating History: A Retrospective of Seven Decades (2020)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Scholarly and precise proseClose reading of primary sourcesCombination of quantitative methods and collective biography
Recurring Motifs
Republicanism and concepts of libertyCommerce and social changeAtlantic perspective

Health

  • Heart failure (cause of death in later life)
    晩年
    Suffered heart failure in later life and died in 2020.

Legacy

Bernard Bailyn was a formative historian of early American and Revolutionary studies who reshaped understandings of republicanism and the ideological origins of the Revolution and helped advance Atlantic history. He trained many distinguished students and was notable for methodological innovations (quantification, collective biography, kinship analysis).

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • American Philosophical Society

Archives

  • Harvard University libraries and archives (holds related materials)

Quotes

  • The belief that power is evil — a necessity perhaps but an evil — and that it is infinitely corrupting ... is at the ideological heart of the American Revolution and has remained with us as a permanent legacy ever after.
    Source: Bernard Bailyn, (summarized from essays such as "The Central Themes of the American Revolution: An Interpretation") (1960)

Trivia

  • Won the Pulitzer Prize twice (1968, 1987).
  • Married to Lotte Bailyn; collaborated on research and publications.
  • Supervised many prominent historians including Gordon S. Wood and Pauline Maier.
  • Delivered the NEH Jefferson Lecture in 1998 and received the National Humanities Medal in 2010.