Bernhard Knollenberg on the Belief of many colonial Americans that Liberty was lost because the Leaders of the People had failed in their Duty (2003)

In his magisterial history of the American Revolution, Bernhard Knollenberg remarks upon the problems facing the Continental Congress in September 1774:

One of the points particularly stressed in the writings in defense of liberty was that liberty, once enjoyed but lost, had commonly been lost because leaders of the people, who ought to have taken timely action to preserve it, had failed in their duty.

Unfortunately this book is no longer available online at the OLL website for reasons of copyright. Nevertheless, Knollenberg’s 2 volume history of the American Revolution, Origin of the American Revolution: 1759–1766 and Growth of the American Revolution: 1766–1775, is a classic which is still available in book form from Liberty Fund.