Origin of the American Revolution

In his two volumes on the Revolution, Bernhard Knollenberg provides a basic narrative of events with extensive citations to the sources and a thorough discussion of the historiography. He concentrates on the political and constitutional clash between Parliament and the colonies that led to the Revolution. Social, economic, and intellectual history enter the story where needed, but Knollenberg was essentially a political historian. Although steeped in the sources and scrupulous about the facts, he wrote Whig history. His sympathies lay with the Americans. He believed that the British ministries were responsible for the crumbling of the empire and that the Americans represented the cause of liberty.

Bernhard Knollenberg practiced law for twenty-two years in New York City before leaving to direct the Yale University Library in 1938. He was the senior deputy administrator of the United States Lend-Lease Administration in Washington, D.C., and later a Division Deputy in the O.S.S., during World War II. Thereafter, he dedicated his time to historical research and writing about the American Revolution. He is also the author of Washington and the Revolution; Pioneering Sketches of the Upper Whitewater Valley: Quaker Stronghold of the West; and Franklin, Jonathan Williams, and William Pitt. Bernhard Knollenberg died in 1973.

Bernard W. Sheehan is Professor emeritus of history at Indiana University and past editor of the Indiana Magazine of History.