Title HISTORIOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION.pdf ✅

PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL : According to the Progressive school, social and economic problems led to the revolution. The disputes between the lowest and higher classes were stressed. Progressive historians held the view that "materialistic factors not ideological factors were the major determinists in history," including Carl L. Becker, Charles A. Beard, Arthur M. Schlesinger, and J. Franklin Jameson. Progressive historians believed that mostly self- economic interests motivated man. According to Carl L. Becker the American Revolution should be considered not as one revolution but two. The first was an external revolution-the colonial rebellion against Britain that was caused by a clash of economic interests between the colonies and the mother country. The second was an internal revolution-a conflict between America's social classes to determine whether the upper or lower classes would rule once the British departed. 'The economic interpretation of the constitution' by Charles A. Beard claims that the disputes between "rich and poor" and "creditors and debtors" during the time "mirrored a split within American society." Schlesinger in his work 'Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution' argues that merchants got angry about the British policies enforced after the French and Indian war, though they failed to act against the British for fear they might lose power to the lower classes. They actively participated in the newly formed government after independence, nevertheless, and helped to draft the constitution in order to take "control of the government."The American Revolution was viewed as a great social revolution that transformed colonial society in J. Franklin Jameson's essay, "The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement." It was demonstrated that the aristocratic and democratic ideologies had a significant collision throughout the Confederate Period. The historical consensus viewed the Revolution as a socio-economic occurrence, the result of a struggle within the colony between "aristocrats" and "democrats," with the constitutional dispute with Britain being of minor consequence. NEO-CONSERVATIVE SCHOOL: After World War II, Neo-Conservative school of historians formed to contest the progressive historian's view. American society during the colonial era was democratic. The Revolution was a "conservative act" that was started in order to preserve the way of life the colonists had started to live. They disregarded the notion of a class struggle. In The Genius of American Politics, Daniel J. Boorstin stated that the American Revolution was once more recognised as "a victory of constitutionalism." According to Boorstin, the British constitution was violated when Britain attempted to tax them for the French and Indian War. The colonists were defending a right they had when they refused to pay taxes without representation. Boorstin said the "patriots more true followers of the British Constitution than the British were themselves. In 1953, Edmund S. Morgan argued that colonists9 arguments about constitutionality were not only genuine but that they were central to the Revolution.
WHIG SCHOOL : These early histories belonged firmly to the Whig school. Whig historians imagined history in general, and the American Revolution in particular, as a journey of progress and advancement. Human society was improving and progressing toward a state of political and social fulfilment, the Whigs argued, and the United States was at the forefront of this progress. These late 19th century historians portrayed the revolution as a worthy cause that was guided by benevolent and wise leaders. The revolution’s foundation documents – the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – were painted as the culmination of Western political philosophy, democracy and liberalism. That these achievements were won with minimal bloodshed or destruction was a testimony to the American people and their desire for freedom and progress. NEO-WHIG SHCOOL : Neo Whig School is an additional ideological school. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn is among the most important publications of this new ideological approach (1967). The so-called "radical Whig" republican heritage in England, according to Bailyn, gave rise to the ideology of the colonists and instilled in them a deep fear of tyranny and conspiracies against their freedom. The Revolution, in Bailyn's opinion, was primarily an intellectual revolution, a fundamental shift in how most Americans viewed their institutions and themselves. This "ideological" revolution constituted a complete transformation in the image that the colonists had of themselves. According to Gordon Wood the American Revolution is radical and revolutionary as it was the first anti-colonial modern revolution that replaced monarchy with a republic. Various Scholars disagree about using the term REVOLUTIONARY George L.Beer in his four monographs based on British commercial policies in the 17th and 18th centuries asserted that the liberal and enlightened policies made the colonists to prosper. Charles M. Andrews in the 1930s scrutinized both "benefits and burdens' in Navigations Acts of Britain. Lawrence H. Gipson opined that the British helped and protected the North American colonies in the "Great War for Empire (1754-1763)" and hence had complete right to tax the Americans and toughen the navigation acts post 1763. According to these three historians, the colonies were shifting slowly towards the greater self- government and Britain toward greater hold over the empire, Thus, the conflict was constitutional in nature. The historians of Progressive school, unlike imperial school, viewed the Revolution through the lenses of social and economic issues. Progressives opined that materialistic factors mainly determined the historical processes and events. Among the most
influential of the Progressive historians, Carl L. Becker viewed the American Revolution as a dual revolution-external revolution (colonial rebellion against Britain due to economic interests) and internal revolution (clash between the upper and lower classes of colonial America). In his work "The history of Political Parties in the Province of New York" he wrote that before the Revolution the politics of New York was linked to two questions- "the question of home rule" and "the question of who should rule at home". Another historian Charles A. Beard in his book "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution" gave a thesis that the events which led to the formation of convention of 1787 reflects the gap between the rich and poor in American society. His significant work provided Progressive historians a new perspective to view American colonial society (1760s-1780s) in terms of social class conflict over economic issues. The other scholar J. Franklin Jameson opined that the Revolution was a social movement by the lower classes. Franklin's book The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement" gives a detailed explanation of how the socio-economic reforms in the revolution period decreased the control and power of the aristocratic class and improved the conditions of the masses. In the first part of the 20th century, Progressive historians acquired a significant role in interpreting the American Revolution. After 1945, a new school known as Neo-Conservative school emerged. While Progressive historians saw the American colonial society as "undemocratic" wherein lower classes remained marginalised, Neo-Conservatives viewed it as "democratic society". Regarding the American Revolution as a 'conservative movement' they argue that when British policies after 1763 began to threaten the existing democratic system, the colonists rebelled to preserve it. Neoconservatives disagreed with the idea of class conflict and asserted that there existed a general consensus among Americans which led people to believe that certain fundamental principles would continue till their consent. Thus, this school saw 'consensus and continuity as the major subject of the history of the American Revolution.The neoconservative scholar Robert E. Brown in his book mentioned that most of the adult males in pre war Massachusetts were farmers who possessed sufficient land and thus qualified the necessary condition of voting right. Daniel J. Boorstin in his work asserted that the colonists revolted against the British to retain the status quo-the traditional rights under the British constitution. Scholars who wrote after World War II focused on the role of ideas (intellectual school) in bringing on the American Revolution. Bernard Bailyn analysed the pamphlets written during pre-Revolution and in his book "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" claimed that the pamphlets were self-explanatory in nature. He regarded the American revolution as an intellectual revolution and argued that more than the social or political spaces, the actual revolution took place inside people's brains which resulted in a huge transformation they began to view their differences from European society as advantages rather than limitations. Gordon S. Wood suggested that the Revolution was radical as it was the first anti-colonial modern revolution that replaced monarchy with a republic. The American Revolution