Jan. 14, 2009               back to syllabus to "Nature and Significance of Radicalism" reading
 Declaration of Independence to Paine, Common Sense
to some questions for your consideration in reading on the Revolution and on Tom Paine

American Radicalism I: History 350

Note: Our discussion of rights is worth continuing. If you’d like to take part, please stay after class today for some informal discussion. We should have the room until about 1:50 but if you have to leave before then, that’s OK.

I. Sources of Revolutionary Ideology

      A. "Radical Whig" ideas: Power vs. Liberty   Some quotes from Trenchard and Gordon

      B. American Millennialism    
A sermon calls the Revolution God's cause  : “From the preceeding discourse, I think we have reason to conclude, that the cause of this American continent, against the measures of a cruel, bloody, and vindictive ministry, is the cause of God. We are contending for the rights of mankind, for the welfare of millions now living, and for the happiness of millions yet unborn.... It is God’s own cause: It is the grand cause of the whole human race, and what can be more interesting and glorious. If the principles on which the present civil war is carried on by the American colonies, against the British arms, were universally adopted and practiced upon by mankind, they would turn a vale of tears, into a paradise of God.”

C. The Revolution as Consumer Protest?

II. Implications of Ideological and Social Change

    A. Popular Sovereignty--End to Monarchy

    B. Constitutions to Guarantee Rights

    C. From Deference to Individualism?

III. Social Conflict and the Revolution

    A. "Who Should Rule at Home"?

    B. Urban and rural conflicts

    C. Crowds and mobs    Eyewitness account of Boston Tea Party, 1773

IV. Tom Paine: A Life of Paradoxes www.tompaine.com--activists today honor Paine
another activist site praises Paine
  Tom Paine Nat'l Historical Association
some groups still celebrate his birthday!