The American Revolution: From British to American Nationalism

Catalog description

It may be comforting to know that historians unanimously agree that an American Revolution did, indeed, occur. Less comforting, but more intriguing, may be the realization that historians do not agree on when it commenced and when it ended, much less on the full meaning of what exactly took place beyond the mere facts of the Revolution. Certainly, the question was profound enough to move John Adams to ask, “What do we mean by the Revolution?” This course will look at the many different answers that revolutionary Americans gave to Adams’ question by examining the political, intellectual, social, and cultural dimensions of this event. Was the Revolution simply a struggle for political independence, or was it also a social conflict over who would “rule at home”? Was the American Revolution a transformation in the “hearts and minds” of the people, as Adams believed, or was the War for Independence integral to the meaning and character of the Revolution? Did the Revolution end with the close of the war, or was the war, to use Benjamin Rush’s words, “but the first act of the great drama”? What was the relationship between the Constitution and the Revolution? Was the Constitution a conservative reaction against the radicalism of the Revolution, or did the Constitution extend and solidify what the Revolution had achieved? While the emphasis of this course will be on what the Revolution meant for those who participated in it, we will also look more broadly at the long-term legacy and memory of the Revolution. Through this examination, the THE CURRICULUM 78 course will ultimately seek to address the question: What was the basis for, and nature of, American national identity? Propaganda and Mass Communications in Modern History