History

focus on introducing us to the American Revolution and how the “Unknown Revolution” that took place in the colonies.

Questions:

1) 1) What does author Gary B. Nash mean by the “true radicalism of the Revolution”?

2) 2) What do the primary sources reveal about the desires of common people or outsiders to challenge the prevailing ideas or existing state of affairs in Colonial society?

3) 3) Based on your analysis of “The Unknown Revolution”, do the primary sources support or contradict Nash’s argument regarding the non-elite and how they tried to democratize their society? (How so?) (Please present a minimum of 3 sources as support for your answer.)

ANSWER

Unknown Revolution

Unknown Revolution

According to Gary Nash, the true meaning of radicalism refers to advocacy focusing on the whole change and sharp changes rooted to the vision of an improved future by the people who were most dissatisfied with the conditions they were subjected to during the disagreement between United States and Britain. True radicalism sought a reformed America and the advocates sought for a redistribution of religious, social, and political power. Additionally, the true radicals sort to discard the old institutions and creating new ones. The overthrowal of old ingrained institutional patterns supported by conservative and elitist thought had to be eliminated in the country (Mazzaferro, 2018). The true intention of the true radicals was linked to a multifaceted effort to democratize the American society by instilling power to the people.

Ideally, these were the goals of the common people because they believed that the society would benefit from equality especially in the representation of disenfranchised people like women and slaves. However, some of the founding fathers were primarily concerned about their status in the status despite the increased agitation of equality in the country (Ingraham, 2018). Nonetheless, most of the common people and outsiders were incensed towards a better society ingrained with the intention of gaining independence for the United Kingdom.

The primary sources support The Unknown Revolution because some of the sentiments that fueled the revolution were based on inequality in terms of political, social, and economic power wielded by some of the people in authority. On this note, one of the issues that most of Americans agitated for included equality with the oppressive government of King George (Palmer, 2006). However, it is still clear that some of the founding fathers had vested interests in the revolution, and this has continued to affect the American society to date because some people still manipulate the political system in the country for their own benefits.

References

Ingraham, K. R. (2018). ” True Principles of Liberty and Natural Right”: The Vermont State Constitution and the American Revolution. State University of New York at Albany.

Mazzaferro, A. (2018). Such a Murmur” Innovation, Rebellion, and Sovereignty in William Strachey’s “True Reportory. Early American Literature, 53(1), 3-32.

Palmer, J. (2006). Palmer on Nash, “The Unknown America Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America.” New York: Viking.