3.12 revolutions, cont. (91)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Tue, 9 May 89 23:37:42 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 12. Tuesday, 9 May 1989.
(1) Date: Mon, 8 May 89 22:29:54 EDT (38 lines)
From: jonathan@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jonathan Altman)
Subject: American Revolution
(2) Date: Mon, 8 May 89 23:26:55 EDT (22 lines)
Subject: Re: 3.11 Tartars, women, and revolutions (104)
From: D.J. Mabry <DJMABRY@MSSTATE>
(3) Date: Tue, 9 May 89 06:59:00 EDT (6 lines)
From: L.M.Richmond@vme.glasgow.ac.uk
Subject: Re: 2.929: Ph.D.s; revolution (65)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 8 May 89 22:29:54 EDT
From: jonathan@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jonathan Altman)
Subject: American Revolution
Well, if Perry (sorry, missed the last name) has to worry about
flame-proof underwear, I'm going to be in real trouble, but here
goes....I will forewarn you that my educational background does not in
itself make me qualified to enter this discussion-I've only just
completed my Bachelor's degree(I am on this list for my work
affiliation)-but I did major in history(concentrating on American, at
that).
What I've gleaned from my classwork covering Revolutionary American
history does not make the American revolution, as Guy Pace, suggests, a
civil war between Americans. Rather, it was a war over the issue of
what was an appropriate basis for exercising governmental authority:
the British system of constitutional government or the American system
of contractual government. The conflict occurs in that the concept
that the British constitution was made up of the totality of the
British governmental system, while the American governmental system was
defined for most colonies (the "charter" colonies, especially) on the
basis of a contractual agreement between the residents of a particular
colony (the charter) and the British government covering what each's
responsibilities was supposed to be. The progression towards open
conflict from 1763 onward was a result of the tension between the
British notion that their actions in the colonies constituted (ignore the pun)
reassertion of power granted by the constitution, while the
Americans who became the "revolutionaries" were seeking to maintain
what they thought a very practical status quo (interesting to find
revolutionaries attempting to maintain a "status quo") in the
colonies.
Well, there it is, flame away on a poor undergraduate (as if the
professors among you don't get enough opportunity to do that normally).
Jonathan Altman jonathan@eleazar.Dartmouth.edu
Database Administrator jonathan.altman@Dartmouth.edu
Dartmouth Dante Project
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------42----
Date: Mon, 8 May 89 23:26:55 EDT
Subject: Re: 3.11 Tartars, women, and revolutions (104)
In re Pace's comments about the American Revolution,several thoughts come
to mind immediately. How many revolutions have not been civil wars? That
the American Revolution was also a civil war (but not on the scale as has
been seen in some societies) does not lessen it as a revolution.
As far as when the revolution took place, there is a convincing
argument that the cultural revolution took place long before the political
debate of the 1760s and 1770s. It took the Imperial Crises of 1763-65 to
awaken many loyal Britishers in some of the colonies (after all, not all of
the colonies revolted against the Crown) to realize that their idea of the
rights of Englishmen was very different from that of the parent country. In
time, many colonials decided that they were not English after all.
The ideas reflected in the D of I, the state constitutions, the
first constitution (otherwise known as the Articles of Confederation), and
the second constitution (that of 1787 which will still use today) did not
spring forth quickly but reflected, I think, a more subtle and evolutionary
change in American thinking.
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!Donald J. Mabry !DJMABRY@MSSTATE !
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Tue, 9 May 89 06:59:00 EDT
From: L.M.Richmond@vme.glasgow.ac.uk
Subject: Re: 2.929: Ph.D.s; revolution (65)
Revolutions
What about the Reformation ?