Sep 24, 2026 · 35 min · 10 segments
How is it, Samuel Johnson famously asked on the eve of the Revolution, that Americans could so vociferously demand freedom for themselves while so conspicuously continuing to deny it to those they…
Matthew MasonGuest
Edward BloomHost
In the early part of the book, I'm arguing for continuity instead of massive change in relation to the American Revolution.
As I did more research in the colonial period, I found all manner of contestation over slavery.
And I found it, I ended up writing two chapters where I thought I'd write one.
From the 17th century into the 18th century, slavery was hotly contested in ways that I came to see as political before the American Revolution.
So I'm seeing the debates and contests surrounding slavery as intensified greatly by the era of the American Revolution, but not generated.
And that's one contribution I'm trying to make because so much of the scholarship I just described and the debate I just described posits that the American Revolution is a starting point, right? So I'm going to use a lot of C words.
But another, when I focus on the American Revolutionary era, it was one of these.
And even for me, you know, my colleagues in my department could tell that, you know, they've read a lot of behemoth drafts that I've inflicted on them.
So I took a step back and realized, OK, what's really going on here? And this is my attempted contribution for the revolutionary era.
Both sides are seeking the high moral ground and therefore the high political ground.
And that connects to all those virtues that Bernard Balin, Gordon Wood, the older interpretation of the American Revolution, the ideals of the American Revolution, that connects to that.
In the early part of the book, I'm arguing for continuity instead of massive change in relation to the American Revolution.
As I did more research in the colonial period, I found all manner of contestation over slavery.
And I found it, I ended up writing two chapters where I thought I'd write one.
From the 17th century into the 18th century, slavery was hotly contested in ways that I came to see as political before the American Revolution.
So I'm seeing the debates and contests surrounding slavery as intensified greatly by the era of the American Revolution, but not generated.
And that's one contribution I'm trying to make because so much of the scholarship I just described and the debate I just described posits that the American Revolution is a starting point, right? So I'm going to use a lot of C words.
But another, when I focus on the American Revolutionary era, it was one of these.
And even for me, you know, my colleagues in my department could tell that, you know, they've read a lot of behemoth drafts that I've inflicted on them.
So I took a step back and realized, OK, what's really going on here? And this is my attempted contribution for the revolutionary era.
Both sides are seeking the high moral ground and therefore the high political ground.
And that connects to all those virtues that Bernard Balin, Gordon Wood, the older interpretation of the American Revolution, the ideals of the American Revolution, that connects to that.
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