Some historians support the concept of American exceptionalism but avoid the terminology to avoid getting entangled in rhetorical debates. Bernard Bailyn, a leading colonial specialist at Harvard, is a believer in the distinctiveness of American civilization. Although he rarely, if ever, uses the phrase "American exceptionalism," he insists upon the "distinctive characteristics of British North American life." He argues that the process of social and cultural transmission result in peculiarly-American patterns of education in the broadest sense of the word, and he believes in the unique character of the American Revolution.