Synopsis
Have the great leaders of the generation from 1763 to 1789 never again been equaled in the nation's history, or do we tend to clothe the past in romanticism, the present in cynicism? Is there a pattern to the heights and depths of political leadership? These are among the many questions considered by the historians who took part in the third Library of Congress Symposium on the American Revolution and which, since hearings on the impeachment of the President by the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives began on the very day the symposium opened, are of more than academic interest today.
"When a society gets disturbed; men of great abilities and good talents are always found or made." This observation by John Adams in 1780 is quoted by L. H. Butterfield, editor of The Adams Papers and chairman of the symposium, in his opening remarks. That the leaders of this country's Revolution were possessed of remarkable abilities is generally agreed. Whether "great crises produce great leaders" is another matter, and on that point the participants in the symposium reached no common conclusion. Their discussions covered many aspects of leadership during the American Revolution - political, congressional, intellectual, military, and psychological.
The speakers, whose papers appear in this volume, were Alfred H. Kelly, Wayne State University, Marcus Cunliffe, University of Sussex, Gordon S. Wood, Brown University, Don Higginbotham, University of North Carolina, and Bruce Maxlish, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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