Bernard Bailyn composed the book The Origins of American Politics in the form of three essays, which were delivered, in their original form in November of 1965 as the Charles K. Colver Lectures at Brown University. They are the result of a combination of "two separately undertaken efforts of historical interpretation" begun in the mid-twentieth century(vii). The first of which was a study of Pre-Revolution politics in the American colonies. A topic which had been given much attention but remained "remarkably obscure". This was coupled with a separate undertaking in the study of the "ideological origins of the Revolution". The result of these two separate interpretations was a brief statement of explanation dealing with the ideological, based on the study of Revolutionary writings and their antecedents, and the political, defined as the history of the ways men have used the institutions of government and the struggles for authority. A large part of the lectures deal partially or directly in answering the specific question: "what differences were there between the political processes in eighteenth-century America and eighteenth-century England that could explain the significantly different receptions of the same political ideas?"(x).
The topic of early American politics was remarkably obscure especially for a topic of such importance. Bailyn believes this to be the result of a few factors. First he believes there to be a "lack of clarity"(viii) in the definition of politics and the focus of its study. Politics is not the same as government although the two are entwined and do effect each other. The history of government is the history of the formal institutions and procedures which create and govern legal authority. The history of politics is the history of the ways men have used such institutions and the struggles for authority between rivalries, factions, and agencies of government.