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Interpretations of the American Colonial View During the Revolutionary Period The American revolutionary war has been studied and presented by historians in a multitude of ways. At the elementary level of schooling, many American children are given an account of the revolution involving a heroic, patriotic struggle against a tyrant King and a greedy despotic parliament. In this account, England is shown to institute taxes and tariffs that are completely unfounded by the colonists. Taxation without representation, the colonists cried. The reasoning behind these taxes is only explained as being instituted to force the colonies into submission. However, many historians give an account that is quite different. Some have researched both sides of the story, and make many of the claims made by the patriotic colonial leaders seem radical and sometimes even irrational. Examining the work The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, by historian Bernard Bailyn, he describes the views of the colonists: They saw about them, with increasing clarity, not merely mistaken, or even evil, policies violating the principles upon which freedom rested, but what appeared to be evidence of nothing less than a deliberate assault laun