The American RevolutionThe American Revolution 4

CONTENTS

■This 1857 painting depicts the destruction of a statue of King George III

during the Revolution. This rendering purges the “mob” action of its menacing

violence: The arm gestures are celebratory rather than threatening, and the

women and children are well-to-do. This is a middle-class view of the American

Revolution—bloodless, public-spirited, and consensual.

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birthday was declared a national holiday in 1968, most

states have chosen to honor him by closing schools.

Indeed, the founders now loom so large that it may

seem that they could not have lost to the British. But their

triumph was not inevitable. To understand the American

Revolution, we must examine it from the perspective of the

past, before the names of the founders adorned beer bot-

tles and elementary schools, and before the United States

had become a mighty nation. The simple truth is that the

American Revolution was accomplished by men and

women who did not know if they would succeed. At the

outset, they did not even know whether they sought British

concessions or independence, whether most colonists

would side with them or remain loyal to His Majesty’s

government, whether foreign powers such as France could

be enlisted to provide support, whether rebellion against

political authority in London would undermine social order

in America, or whether the many different peoples of the

colonies could be knitted into a single nation. The revolu-

tionaries did know, however, that if they failed they would

likely face arrest, imprisonment, and even death.

As the rebellion escalated into a full-scale war for

independence, the colonists confronted the challenge of

creating and financing an army that could defeat the

mightiest empire in the world. In the midst of fighting,

and in the wake of freedom from British rule, they faced

an even greater challenge—the founding of a new nation,

with a new government and a new national spirit.■

■The Shot Heard Round

the World

■The Second Continental

Congress

■The Battle of Bunker Hill

■The Great Declaration

■1776: The Balance of Forces

■Loyalists

■The British Take New York City

■Saratoga and the French

Alliance

■The War Moves South

■Victory at Yorktown

■Negotiating a Favorable Peace

■National Government under

the Articles of Confederation

■Financing the War

■State Republican

Governments

■Social Reform and Antislavery

■Women and the Revolution

■Growth of a National Spirit

■The Great Land Ordinances

■National Heroes

■A National Culture

■Debating the Past:

Was the American Revolution

Rooted in Class Struggle?

■Re-Viewing the Past:

The Patriot

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