Bailyn talked about his book To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders, published by Alfred A. Knopf. The book had five essays that focused on the creative imagination of the nation's founders, whom Professor Bailyn believed to be idealists as much as realists. He emphasized how the Framers' provincialism allowed them to spring free of European modes of thought to create something genuinely new. Professor Bailyn used pictures to reveal the different aspirations and bearing of the British and founding gentry.