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Gordon Wood And The American Revolution Summary

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After reading the work of Bernard Bailyn’s The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution and Gordon Wood’s The Radicalism of the American Revolution, it is clear that the origins of the American Revolution and the debate over its interpretation has led well into the late 1900s despite a period gap of over 200 years. Each work independently exemplifies one of the broadly debated theories for the events leading and corresponding with the American revolution, ideas that the American Revolution was a result of a political and intellectual movement or a genuine event based on the changing view in the eighteenth century.
Bailyn’s work, which published almost 25 years before the work of Wood, is an intellectual history which uses the medium of political pamphlets to provide details and argue his ideology as the American Revolution being mainly a political and intellectual movement as the result of the colonial defense against Britain to defend what became the ideals and principles of Americans in the late eighteenth-century. For Bailyn, one of the fundamental attributes which set the American Revolution into motion was the constant conflict of Power vs. Liberty, stating in his thesis “the American …show more content…

However, for Wood it was not the power that the British monarchy placed over the American colonies, but the transition that Americans faced as they moved from the governing system of a monarchy to a republic then later to a democracy, all which lead to the change in ideals of the American in the eighteenth century. Wood placed emphasis on this by stating “Living in a society that was already diverse and pluralistic, Americans realized that these attachments could not be traditional ethic, religious and tribal loyalties to the Old World. Instead, they sought new enlightened connections to hold their new popular societies

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Gordon S. Wood, “the preeminent historian of the Revolution”, is a well known American historian who has received several awards such as the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prize for his historical books. In his book, The American Revolution: A History, he breaks down the key events based on his experiences and knowledge on the Revolutionary period. Wood was born in Concord, Massachusetts on November 27,1933. Wood teaches at many liberal renowned universities such as Brown, Cambridge, Northwestern , and Harvard. Now being eighty one years old, he recently retired from Brown University and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

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Dr. Wood explains to us how we started with a monarchical society, and very different from what we know now. This society was transformed by the revolution, which helped it modernize our society, placing more importance on equality and a democratic system. To be clear, one must recognize that equality and democratic freedoms have since evolved tenfold since the 18th century in respects to i.e., voting and human rights. However, at that time, the American Revolution helped the United States become one of the most democratic nations in the world, all occurring in a short period of

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In “A Revolutionary People at War”, Charles Royster has developed a complex and in-depth thesis regarding the American Revolution. The book dives into the minds of the American people as it conveys the American character displayed throughout the Revolution. His book is multi-faceted, focusing on a number of themes that are beautifully intertwined. He discusses the prevailing American character during the American Revolution. The book studies the ideals of the American people during the revolution and how those ideals impacted the way the Continental Army was organized and how the Revolution was fought.

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Historian, Gordon S. Wood, takes the readers back to the the time of our founding fathers in Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. His book enables us to critique our present political leaders based off the never forgotten achievements of the aristocrats who shaped an egalitarian society and politics. Wood figuratively paints eight portraits of self-made aristocrats who transformed a revolution into a prosperous country. He illuminates their lives with such interest and familiarity, one would think Wood was an observer among them. From this book, readers will understand how trials, wars, and critics all allowed men such as Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Thomas Paine to create the identity of America that we

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The American Revolution was a political outbreak that changed the face of the nation. American colonies became independent and broke out of British rule to become its own country and formulated its own government to become what is known as The United States of America. The cause of the Revolution was to become independent and get out of the British’s treatment and rules and to develop their own method of ruling a nation. Howard Zinn had his own point of view and arguments on the events of the Revolution and what occurred behind the scenes. He opens a new angle to what actually happened and argues that the revolution was a substitution of one tyranny for another.

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In contrast to the literature of the Colonial Period, much of the writing of the eighteenth century was devoted to a single overwhelming subject—the American Revolution. During that time, as words became weapons, Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention,” Thomas Jefferson’s document, The Declaration of Independence, and Thomas Paine’s “Crisis I” pamphlet stand as three influential documents that called for armed defense of the basic rights that the previous generation had sought to define and establish. Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention” strongly advocates for the assumption of a defensive position against the British in Virginia through significant use of emotion and appeals to logic, thereby endorsing the defense

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The American Revolution is arguably the turning point of American history as it resulted in somewhat of a significant, positive change in politics, economics, and society as a whole. However, from 1775 to 1800, the effects of the revolution on the American society were subtle as most principles glorified by revolutionists contradicted the examples set forth by colonial reality. Perhaps most alike to revolutionary beliefs was the American economy and how it participated in free trade or encouraged the independence of hard labor. Politically, the states did apply Enlightenment and republican ideas as promised, but more often than not, the benefits of such ideas were limited to rich, land-owning, protestant, white men. This glorification of

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The Declaration of Independence and the “Speech in the Virginia Convention” are two of the most influential and powerful debates in the Revolution. These arguments lead Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry to become very important figures in the American Revolution. The revolution was when America was demanding freedom from Great Britain. Both of these literary accomplishments are targeting Great Britain. The similarities and differences of these arguments is shown greatly in their format, content, and persuasive techniques.

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The British Colonies in North America were established in the 16th century by various British citizens yet as time progressed the British citizens evolved in to American colonists with their own ideologies. By 1763 the differences between the British citizens and American colonists became more apparent to both parties leading to the American Revolution. The ideology that largely shaped the American colonists is often called the “country philosophy” and the major ideas caused that a spilt from the British include the issue of power vs. liberty, the idea of what made a virtuous man, and worries over standing armies. One of the major concepts of the country philosophy, which shaped colonists’ actions in the 1760s and beyond, is the idea that power and liberty have an inherent inverse relationship. For the colonists at this time the idea of their liberty was very important to them.

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It’s obvious that more people under the pressure of English controlling seeked for equality on both finance and politics. Regards to the unsatisfaction of British intervention, freedom is presented as one of the initial goal. Above all, the basic and core purpose of the American Revolution was the independence from British government, ability to build a self-governing nation and achieve the relative equality. The Declaration of Independence was an important step on the way of revolution which proclaimed the determination of a Self-governing

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Bernard Bailyn’s book, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, is a study into where the intellectual ideas behind American revolutionary thought originated and from where the revolutionaries took their inspiration. It is based on Baily’s extensive research and study of pamphlets in the decades preceding 1783. Bailyn’s main thesis is that the revolution was an ideological and political struggle rather than a desire for economic or social upheaval, caused in main by the influence of English thought mainly via religious ideas, common law and classical literature. Principally, through his study of the pamphlets Bailyn reaches the conclusion that the revolution was driven by a deep fear of a plot against liberty which had been ‘nourished

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As you can see, American leaders had a lot of pressure, responsibilities, and request at their feet. The astonishing conflict that separated American life during the 1790’s balanced on the conflicting understanding of the meaning of the American Revolution and how its legacy should be represented in the newly built nation. Disagreements about the question were heightened due to the French Revolution and what America should do, either take part or keep its distance. At this stage, the United States was still a frail experiment in government.

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The American revolution began as a result of the tyrannies and injustices suffered at the hands of King George III and ultimately led to a dissolution of loyalty to the British Crown. It is a crucial step in securing a stable life for us, our ancestors, and our descendants. The Declaration of Independence was used to announce our departure from Britain and laid the groundwork for the Union under which we live today. The grievances displayed in the Declaration alongside the principles taken from John Locke and presented to build upon demonstrate two models of government; one to evade, and one to strive for. The demonstrations and principles in the Declaration of Independence are visible for all to see, and those principles, with careful examination,

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The American Revolution (1700-1790) was a historical event in time, where the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States of America, gained independence from the British Empire. Many historians would agree that the Revolution was caused by events and the growing differences between the colonists and England. The cause of the American Revolution could be summarized in the saying ‘liberty vs. tyranny’. The American Revolution was a struggle by liberty-loving Americans to free themselves from a dictatorial British rule. In this period, the Colonies protested against the British Empire and entered into the American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence.

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Moving on to the American Revolution, we see novelty and the idea of freedom but through a different lens. The American Revolution, as opposed to the French Revolution’s subversion of monarchy, was a struggle against colonialism; a struggle not within one’s country but with an external power. “they had declared war, not against monarchical principles, but only against the oppressive measures of the British ministry. ”5 The values, ideas and ideals that emerged from this struggle were materialized in two famous documents- The American Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

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