Gordon Wood And The Radical Nature Of The American Revolution

Gordon Wood had the best historiographical argument because his approach focused on the profound changes the American Revolution brought about, he reminded the reader that history should be judged within its own time and place, and explained how the Revolution would change the lives of women and African Americans. Wood’s argument about the radical nature of the American Revolution was most convincing because he argues the Revolution changed centuries of long held beliefs about equality, self-worth, and other ideas regarding property and labor. The Revolution altered the belief in what constitutes the worth of individuals and pushed for equality for more people. Wood stated that the equality of all white men laid the foundation for furthering

Barbara Clark Smith did not do a good job of this because she was arguing that the Revolution was not radical because it “failed to liberate women.” She was judging the radicalism of the Revolution based on the equality and the basic rights of women today. Smith says the “women’s equality was a presence in the nineteenth century and present.” Wood responds, “What Smith needs to realize that what Americans thought of politics and economy in the 1800s is no longer much with us in the late twentieth century.” Wood points out that Smith is wrong and she does not accept that views about women and African Americans were different back then. Unlike Smith, T. H. Breen did a very good job of acknowledging the differences in understanding history within context rather than by our current standards. For example, half of his essay is trying to understand the decisions that were made by Parliament by exploring why they passed taxes that pushed the colonists to the point of boycott and rebellion. In The British Reform and Colonist Resist, it describes the colonist’s response to Parliament overstepping their boundaries and authority by passing acts that demanded colonist representation in government. This helps present day readers understand what was going through the colonist’s head. Another example was

As described previously, the rights gained by all white men had to be put in place before women and African Americans could gain their rights. Despite this, the African Americans, women, and other minorities had a large and important role in the Revolution. During the war, wives would take over their husband’s job while they were fighting, or they would follow them into war. Many African Americans fought in the war. In “A Proposal to Arm Then Free the Negroes,” by Alexander Hamilton to the president of the Continental Congress, John Jay, Hamilton is asking for permission to put African Americans in the war. He persuaded Jay by saying that the African American’s would be able to endure a lot more, add to the numbers, and learn quickly. After they fought in the war, they would be freed. This is an example of how the Revolution could not have happened without the help of African Americans, a statement that Wood, Breen, and Smith all agree on, but Smith understands that their involvement did not necessitate their equality at that