Jan. 12, 2011 to syllabus  to "Nature and Significance of Radicalism" reading
to Trenchard and Gordon reading to Declaration of Independence
Link to some study questions about American Revolution and Tom Paine

New: Paper topic instructions and options now online

History 350: American Radicalism

Note: After class today, I’d like to stay around for another 20 minutes or so for extended informal discussion of the topic of rights that we talked about on Monday. You’re all welcome to stay and participate if you wish.

Reminder: No class Monday, Jan. 17 for Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.

I. Sources of Revolutionary Ideology

A. “Radical Whig” ideas: Power vs. Liberty Some quotes from Trenchard and Gordon

B. American Millenialism
A sermon calls the Revolution God's cause : “From the preceeding discourse, I think we have reason to conclude, that the cause of this American continent, against the measures of a cruel, bloody, and vindictive ministry, is the cause of God. We are contending for the rights of mankind, for the welfare of millions now living, and for the happiness of millions yet unborn.... It is God’s own cause: It is the grand cause of the whole human race, and what can be more interesting and glorious. If the principles on which the present civil war is carried on by the American colonies, against the British arms, were universally adopted and practiced upon by mankind, they would turn a vale of tears, into a paradise of God.”

C. The Revolution as Consumer Protest?

III. Implications of Ideological and Social Change

    A. Popular Sovereignty--End to Monarchy

    B. Constitutions to Guarantee Rights

    C. From Deference to Individualism?

III. Social Conflict and the Revolution

    A. "Who Should Rule at Home"?

    B. Urban and rural conflicts

    C. Crowds and mobs    Eyewitness account of Boston Tea Party, 1773

A contemporaneous print representing the destruction of the statue of King George III in New York