Jan. 5, 2011 to syllabus
to
"Nature and Significance of Radicalism" reading
to Trenchard and Gordon reading
to
Declaration of Independence
History 350: American Radicalism
Link to some
study questions about American Revolution and Tom Paine
I. Was
the United States founded in Revolution?
A. A Social Revolution?
B. A Revolution of Ideas and Feelings?
But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war?
The Revolution was effected before the war commenced.
The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their
religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations...This radical change in
the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real
American Revolution.
--John Adams, 1818
II. The Path to Revolutionary War and Independence
A. Colonial context before 1763
B. Imperial reform and colonial response 1763-1766
C. Parliament reasserts control 1767-1772
D. Conflict renewed 1773-1775
E. War and independence 1775-1783 map
of 13 colonies, 1763-75
III. Declaring Independence
Factoid
of the Day: From a report
issued in 2006 by a conservative research group on "civic literacy":
"College seniors are also ignorant of America's founding documents. Fewer
than half, 47.9 percent, recognized that the line 'We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal,' is from the Declaration of
Independence."
A. Listing Grievances
B. Asserting Rights
1. Natural? Unalienable?
2. From
Where? For Whom?
C.
Legacies and Controversies
1. Expanding the Scope of Rights
2. Debates about “rights talk”:
Natural rights as “nonsense on stilts”? Created unequal?
Sen.
John C. Calhoun of S. Carolina attacks the Declaration in 1848
Timeline
of events leading to the Revolution
"Declaring
Independence" site from Library of Congress
Website for PBS series
"Liberty"
Protest against Stamp Act, 1765
The Boston Massacre, 1770--Engraving by Paul Revere
Boston Tea Party, 1773
Signing the Declaration of Independence, 1776