reveal no merely positions taken but the reasons why positions were taken; they reveal motive and understanding: the assumptions, beliefs, and ideas--the articulated world view--that lay behind the manifest events of the time. . . . I found myself studying . . . nothing less than the ideological origins of the American Revolution (Bailyn x).

Of course, one could just as easily argue that these pamphlets were merely advertisements for the coming revolution, and, in that regard, were propaganda. In other words, these documents present the arguments for the revolution in their most ideal form. An advertisement for an automobile appeals to the psychological and emotional needs of potential buyers; it does not examine the nuts and bolts of the car or consider design flaws or possible problems with the vehicle. The same can be said of original documents upon which Bailyn bases his study.

To some extent, Bailyn acknowledges the idealized picture presented by these documents. He places at the center of his argument the conclusion that the fathers of the revolution were sincere in their writings and impassioned by the sense that they were indeed faced with a consp

In addition, Bailyn concludes that the ideology spun by the American revolutionaries was a fresh one, not simply a borrowing of earlier ideas, but a philosophy which changed and challenged previous ideology to fit the specifics of the colonists' situation.

Robert Weir, in "'The Harmony We Were Famous For': An Interpretation of Pre-Revolutionary South Carolina Politics," focuses on a more narrow aspect of the question, specifically, the lack of conflict among the people and classes of that state, which created, says Weir, a harmonious social and political structure. Weir praises the "country ideology" which produced such harmony, arguing, in alliance with Jameson, that "a series of interrelated assumptions about the virtues thought to be associated with wealth helped to maintain the belief that members of the elite should rule" (Weir 477). Weir argued further that this elitist ideology "envisioned the existence of a society in which the clash of economic and class interests played no role" (Weir 479). Essentially, general wealth among the people created a harmonious society in which "the distance between the social classes was never wide" (Weir 480). However, Weir also points out that this elitist-run system of harmony "lacked during the late colonial period features which would have contributed to the development of techniques for handling basic political conflicts" (Weir 500). Weir focuses with Jameson on the social and elitist aspects of the Revolution, although Weir actually focuses very little on the Revolution itself.

Egnal, Marc, and Joseph A. Ernst. "An Economic Interpretation of the American Revolution." William a