HISTORIOGRAPHY of the American Revolution

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HISTORIOGRAPHY of the American Revolution

• Debates, Ideas, and the Quest for Understanding,
  1793-2006

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So what the !_at_ is Historiography

• The study of the historical writing on a
  particular subject.
• A cure for insomnia

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So what?

• History is a set of lies agreed upon by
  historians. -Bonaparte
• Were all historiographersstruggle for control
  of official memory.
• Are the colonists rebels, patriots, freedom
  fighters, or self-interested elites?
• Just the facts, mam.even straight narrative is
  an interpretation. Focusing on the origins of
  the American Revolution exclude much important
  stuff from consideration

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Basic Interpretations of the American Revolution

• Whig School
• Imperial School
• Progressive School
• Consensus School
• Neo-Whig School
• Neo-Progressive School

• Recent Trends and Notable Books

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Whig School

• American Revolution was a movement for liberty
  in opposition to British tyranny.
• David RamsayHistory of the American Revolution
  (17932 vols.)
• Mercy Otis WarrenHistory of the Rise, Progress,
  and Termination of the Revolution (18053 vols.)
• George BancroftHistory of the United States
  (1834-187410 vols.)

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Mercy Warren and Geo. Bancroft
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Imperial School

• Britain never intended to impose
  tyrannyRevolution was a function of
  trans-Atlantic misunderstandings, bureaucratic
  bungling, and Parliamentary mismanagement.
• Herbert Levi OsgoodAmerican Colonies in the 17th
  Century (1904-19074 vols.) American Colonies in
  the 18th Century (19244 vols.)
• George Louis BeerColonial Policies (1907)
• Charles McLean AndrewsThe Colonial Background of
  the American Revolution (1924)
• Lawrence Henry GibsonBritish Empire, 1748-1765
  (15 vols.)

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Progressive School

• Self-interests compelled Revolution Conflicts
  between merchants and farmers, easterners and
  westerners, city-dwellers and country folk,
  aristocrats and democrats, creditors and debtors
  . . . not so much home rule as who should rule
  at home.
• Charles A. BeardAn Economic Interpretation of
  the Constitution (1913)
• Carl M. BeckerThe Declaration of Independence
  (1922)
• Arthur Meier SchlesingerThe Colonial Merchants
  and the American Revolution, 1763-1776 (1918)
• Merrill M. Jensen-- The Articles of Confederation
  An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional
  History of the American Revolution, 1774-1781
  (1959)

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Consensus School

• Differences among white male colonists were
  minorfounders all supported a liberal, Lockean
  ideal of a republic grounded on widespread
  property ownership and a state committed to
  fosterin individual rights and opportunities.
• Louis M. Hartz
• Richard Hofstadter

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Neo-Whig School

• Ideology was not pretextual it was the real
  prism through which colonists interpreted the New
  Imperial Policy.
• Bernard BailynThe Ideological Origins of the
  American Revolution (1967)
• Gordon S. WoodThe Creation of the American
  Republic, 1776-1787 (1969)

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Neo-Progressive School

• Despite a republican consensus, struggles between
  popular and elite forces drove the events of the
  era.
• Gary NashRed, White, and Black The Peoples of
  Early America (1974)

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Notable Newer Books

• Joyce Appleby--Capitalism and a New Social Order
  (Anson G. Phelps Lectureship on Early American
  History) (1984)
• Gordon S. WoodThe Radicalism of the American
  Revolution (1992)
• T. H. Breen--The Marketplace of Revolution How
  Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence
  (2004)
• Alfred Ruth Blumrosen, Slave Nation How
  Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the
  Revolution. (2005)
• Colin Calloway, A Scratch of a Pen 1763 and the
  Transformation of North America (2007)