Two Books on the American Revolution and Liberalism

I read the first book (with an enormously long title) for a class on the history
of liberalism. Joyce Appleby’s Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical
Imagination (see, told you the title is long) was rather bland, and not a good place to start if you are just trying the get the basics about the historical ideological beginnings of liberalism and the American Revolution (which I was). It was not very coherent at all; it was more like a bunch of essays thrown together than a cohesive study. However, the analysis is well founded and easily readable.

I also read Steven M. Dworetz’s The Unvarnished Doctrine for the same class, and it was leaps and bounds above the Appleby book. This is such a weird thing to say, but it is a wonderfully edited book. A single line of coherency and consistency runs through every chapter, linking them together. I had no doubts about the overall argument of the entire work. The chapter on methodology was really interesting; I always enjoy seeing someone else’s research process, especially in a field I’m not familiar with, like history. This book is well written, and although it really focuses on the influence of Locke on the American Revolution, I feel like it also gives a well-rounded account of other ideological inspirations.