Editing George Bancroft (section)

===Themes===
Bancroft was a [[Romanticism|Romantic]], emphasizing nationalist and republican values.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Bancroft played on four recurring themes to explain the development of American values: providence, progress, patria, and pan-democracy. "Providence" meant that destiny depended more on God than on human will. The idea of "progress" indicated that through continuous reform a better society was possible. [[Homeland|Patria]] was deserved because America's spreading influence would bring liberty and freedom to more and more of the world. "Pan-democracy" meant the nation-state was central to the drama, not specific heroes or villains.<ref>George Athan Billias, [http://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44574433.pdf "George Bancroft: Master Historian,"]  ''Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society,'' Oct 2001, 111#2 pp 507–528</ref>

Richard C. Vitzthum argues that Bancroft's histories exemplify his [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] moral vision of faith in progress. The history of America, in Bancroft's view, exemplified the gradual unfolding of God's purpose for mankind – the development of religious and political liberty.<ref>Richard C. Vitzthum, "Theme and Method in Bancroft's "History of the United States," ''New England Quarterly,'' Sept 1968, 41#3 pp 362–380 [https://www.jstor.org/pss/363983 in JSTOR]</ref>

George M. Frederickson argues that Bancroft's "universalist theory of national origins... made the American Revolution not only the fruit of a specific historical tradition, but also a creed of liberty for all mankind."<ref>Frederickson, George M. (1965), ''The Inner Civil War:  Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union'', 1968 reprint, New York:  Harper Torchbooks, Ch. 9, "The Doctrine of Loyalty," p. 146.</ref>