The First Revolutions In the Minds of the People (ePub)

The First Revolutions in the Minds of the People is the first book in a four-book series. In these books, author James Thomson presents detailed discussions of the social revolutions that over 200 years produced the tyranny of benevolence Alexis de Tocqueville described in Democracy in America (1840).

The first "revolution in the minds of the people" took place in London during the 1760s when a charming scoundrel named John Wilkes borrowed William Pitt's method of speaking to his constituents "in the voice of the people" and began a campaign to win a place in England's closed political establishment. His unlikely victory inspired the English people to use the weight of their numbers to gain a voice for themselves in England's political process.

Wilkes's success inspired Sam Adams who used Wilkes's method to rouse his countrymen against King George III. Mr. Thompson explains that whatever success Adams achieved owed to his use of intimidation to suppress the King's supporters. As the King's governments became inoperable, Adams's compatriots replaced them with governments run by themselves. Professor Bailyn chose to ignore these facts because he wanted to transform the American Revolution into a campaign by civic humanists (like himself) who were seeking to rid American society of social inequality and injustice.

Adams's "rights" revolution began in the spring of 1764 and continued until the "shot was fired heard round the world," which opened the War for American Independence. During this revolution, Sam Adams and his compatriot accomplished what they set out do, which was to govern a set of independent American states themselves.

James Thompson earned his under-graduate and graduate degrees in Philosophy at the University of Virginia. He became interested in Thomas Jefferson and American history as a graduate student living on the farm of Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph,