the radicalism of the american revolution

It is a complicated and at times ironic story that needs to be explained and understood, not blindly celebrated or condemned. But the history of the American Revolution, like the history of the nation as a whole, ought not to be viewed simply as a story of right and wrong from which moral lessons are to be drawn.

No doubt the story is a dramatic Thirteen insignificant colonies three thousand miles from the centers of Western civilization fought off British rule to become, in fewer than three decades, a huge, sprawling, rambunctious republic of nearly four million citizens. The Revolution, in short, gave birth to whatever sense of nationhood and national purpose Americans have had. Lincoln saw as well that the Revolution had convinced Americans that they were a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty. Our noblest ideals and aspirations-our commitments to freedom, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, and equality-came out of the Revolutionary era.

He knew that the Revolution not only had legally created the United States, but also had produced all of the great hopes and values of the American people. When Abraham Lincoln sought to define the significance of the United States, he naturally looked back to the American Revolution. Ellis, author of Founding BrothersĪ magnificent account of the revolution in arms and consciousness that gave birth to the American republic. “An elegant synthesis done by the leading scholar in the field, which nicely integrates the work on the American Revolution over the last three decades but never loses contact with the older, classic questions that we have been arguing about for over two hundred years.” -Joseph J.

The radicalism of the american revolution