AS a scholar, Bernard Bailyn achieved renown for his historical writing, winning accolades early in his career. In 1968, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution earned Bailyn the Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes plus lasting acclaim. Seven years later, he won the National Book Award for The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, his study of the Massachusetts governor whose loyalism came at high cost. Ordeal represents the fullest expression of Bailyn's career-long fascination with biography. Though Bailyn produced life sketches of various lengths, he published only one full-length biography, despite his obvious talent for the form. The special place that Ordeal holds among Bailyn's published works merits close examination of why and how he crafted it. The book's reception, Bailyn's evolving views on the book, and the difficulties biographical writing presents every historian invites our scrutiny.
Having finished Ideological Origins and addressed related topics in the brief Origins of American Politics...