This pioneering work is the basic and largely unmatched study of the single transatlantic community of thought shared by nineteenth century British and Canadian Liberals and American Democrats. The result of more than ten years of comparative research, The Transatlantic Persuasion explores the roots of those ideas that comprise a coherent Liberal-Democratic worldview: ideas about society, human relations, the economy, equality, liberty, the ethnocultural dimension of life, the proper role and nature of government and the world community.

Robert Kelley was professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara since 1955. He was the author of Gold versus Grain; and co-author with Leland D. Baldwin of The Stream of American History, and Survey of American History. He wrote extensively for periodical literature.