"Quite naturally, the men who led in stirring up the revolt against Great Britain and in keeping the fighting temper of the Revolutionists at the proper heat were the boldest and most radical thinkers - men like Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson."
Charles A. Beard was an American historian and public intellectual associated with progressive historiography. He is widely known for An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. Beard was a major scholarly voice in early 20th-century American historical writing.