#there is enough bad stuff in the American Revolution that you don't need to massage the details let it speak for itself

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

This is something I fundamentally do not understand about historians and the study of history:

A lot of very clever people do not think the American Revolution is a Revolution. They will refer to independence and the independence movement, the War of American Independence and so on, and they will very cleverly tell you that the same class--white men--are in power before and after, and in some instances, the exact same men had power in the colonial era and kept it after independence, and so there is no Revolution, and aren't you silly for having thought so?

When you turn to France, by 1815, the exact same family that was in power in 1789 is in power again. Nobody pretends that the French Revolution did not happen.

I don't know what causes this. It appears to me some odd blend of nationalistic snobbery from outside observers, rigid adherence to Marxist theories that delineate what is and is not a "true" Revolution, refusal to open up even the possibility that something might be said about the United States that fuels someone's belief in its exceptionalism, and, though I am not sure how many would admit this, bitter disappointment with how the Revolution appears to have turned out.

In this and all questions about Revolutions a significant portion of your interpretation depends on when and how (and if) you think a Revolution ends.

In the words of John Adams writing in 1818, "The American Revolution was not a common Event. It’s Effects and Consequences have already been Awful over a great Part of the Globe. And when and Where are they to cease?"

#the way people manipulate language to try to massage your beliefs #if we don't call it a revolution Americans will stop pretending they are special maybe? #sorry baby Americans are way too retarded to be fooled like that #you'll do your cause no favors with this dishonesty #call it what it is #there is enough bad stuff in the American Revolution that you don't need to massage the details let it speak for itself