Historical Perspectives on the American Revolution
1830-1870 George Bancroft “History of the United States of America”
The American Revolution was just another chapter in the unfolding story of human
liberty. (This is the Whig view of history. Whigs had a favorable outlook for the Americans as
opposed to the Tories).
1890’s George Beer, Charles Andrew, and Lawrence Gipson (Imperial School)
The Revolution was the product of a collision between two different views of the empire.
While Americans were moving steadily toward more self-government, Britain increasingly
tightened its grip, threatening a stranglehold that eventually led to a wrenching revolution.
1920’s J. Franklin Jameson (Progressive Historians) ”The American Revolution Considered as a
Social Movement”
The American Revolution stemmed from deep-seated class tensions within American
Society. In addition to the class struggles in the colonies but inspired by ordinary Americans who
sought economic and political power.
1950’s Robert Brown and Edmund Morgan (Consensus Historians)
They downplayed the role of class struggle and focused on the colonists of all ranks who
shared a commitment to certain fundamental principles of self-government.
1960’s Bernard Bailyn “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution(1967)
He discusses the ideological and psychological factors. Colonists incited by the 17th and
early 18th century English Enlightenment ideas. Colonists responded to increased taxes as a
“conspiracy against liberty”. His analysis of pre-revolutionary political pamphlets indicates that
Britain was attempting establish tyrannical control over the colonies.
1970’s Gary Nash “The Urban Crucible” (1979)
Increase social and economic division among colonists in both urban seaports and the
isolated country-sides.
Fred Anderson “The Seven Years War 1754 – 1763”
2000 T.H. Breen “The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American
Independence”. (2004) Breen argues that British nationalism intensified in the colonies over the course
of the 18th century as economic and cultural ties between Britain and North America strengthened
through increased trade and the migration of ideas with the growth of print culture. Only when the
colonists realized that the British did not see them as equal imperial citizens, entitled to the same rights
as Englishmen, did American nationalism emerge and Americans rebel.
Howard Zinn “A Peoples History of the United States”
Zinn sees the events that led up to the American Revolution as an instrument of the colonial elite to
win control from Britain and thus over America. Britain was sympathetic to the plight of the poor after
the French and Indian War and because of Britain’s support and renewed focus on colonial trade, forced
the colonial elite to convince the poorer masses that Britain was their enemy.
2002 Gordon Wood “The American Revolution”
Wood saw the American Revolution as more than a political change for the United States but also as
the start of social change.
1. Slavery – Slavery existed for over thousands of years but now it was being criticized. During
the revolution there were arguments against it because it was contradictory to revolutionary
values.
2. Women’s Movement – during the American Revolution letters were written about women’s
right to vote especially by Abigail Adams. Newspaper articles also started during the AR that
challenged the patriarchal world.
3. Nationalism – AR unified the colonies as one nation through the values and beliefs that came
from the AR, Liberty-Equality – Constitutionalism.