Bridenbaugh is best known for his two major books on colonial cities: Cities in the Wilderness-The First Century of Urban Life in America 1625-1742 (1938) and Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America, 1743-1776 (1955).
He stirred a sharp debate regarding his possible anti-Semitism with his AHA presidential address asserting that urban academics-which many academics read as "Jewish"-were unsuited to study Colonial American history because they did not understand rural culture [REF].