George Bancroft was the preeminent American historian of his day and the first to undertake (but not to complete) a comprehensive history of the United States, a task complicated and prolonged by an active political-diplomatic career. He continues to influence the understanding of American history today, even though hundreds of general histories have been published since his death in 1891. More than any other single writer, Bancroft persuasively fashioned American history in the form of a democratic mythology. In his works originates the widely prevalent "consensus" interpretation of American history--the belief that America has always been a successful experiment in democracy, capitalism, and nationalism and has enjoyed a uniquely uninterrupted progress.

Bancroft's great literary and intellectual achievement was to convincingly refashion and portray American colonial and Revolutionary history in a way that satisfied the needs and perspectives of the prevailing forces of the nineteenth century. To prove that their...