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The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood

Gordon Wood’s 1991 Pulitzer Prize winning book Radicalism of the American Revolution proves that although the American Revolution appears docile next to the revolutions of France and other countries, it was indeed radical in that it altered way of life. Not only was the government altered by the revolution, but society and societal relationships also changed. Wood explores the how monarchy is mingled and replaced with republicanism which leads to U.S. democracy.

Preface/Introduction:

Wood introduces the purpose of writing his book as a “continuing inquiry into the democratization of early America.” Wood thanks the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences, as well as others, and dedicates the book to his wife.

In the introduction, Wood states that the although the American revolutionaries do not appear as spirited and outwardly radical as the those working in other countries’ revolutions, it is just as radical as any other revolution. The revolution sparked modernization.

Monarchy

Monarchy implied hierarchy, and systems of patricians and plebians, patriarchal dependence, and patronage. Hierarchy was essential to how people of that time understood the make up of the world, in the great chain of being. Monarchy is what united the colonies: the diverse groups of people living in different conditions and climates along the east coast were held together with a common respect for the English crown. Religion encouraged monarchial authority and order. Even though, as a new society, the colonies lacked the inequality and disparity and class consciousness found in the motherland, degrees and subordinations still structured civilization: patrician and plebian divisions existed. Laws recognized the aristocracy’s difference from commoners. Gentlemen did not have to work, they were above working: they were free and independent. To be a trader was not gentlemanly. Gentlemen protected their honor with duels. The higher classes understood the need to keep the lower class poor to maximize their industriousness. The aristocracy was to stimulate the economy and support the working class with consumption. Places in societal hierarchy could be noted with titles. Gentlemen addressed working class as if they were children, but the working class had to address the gentlemen with great respect and honor. The nuclear family was the template for society. Land was passed father to son through primogeniture and entail. Within the family, women and children were utterly dependent on the head of the household. Children were punished physically. Fathers threatened their children with disinheritance. Patriarchy extended to slaves and indentured servitude. The motif also applied to land lords and tenant farmers, shop owners and apprentices, and women to their husbands, brothers, and even sons. Patriarchal society forced colonists into system of patronage. Equality was not expected in colonial America, which clung to hierarchy, obligation, and dependency. A good name and reputation was very important. Societies system of patronage encouraged socioeconomic ties between people that eliminated third party institutions: instead of borrowing from a bank, a consumer would borrow from whoever he was buying the product from. Store keepers kept tabs and ran on credit. Currency was frowned upon and payments were made in barter. This system stabilized communal relationships. Patriarchy and patronage, which today seem archaic, made sense at the time in a post-medieval notion of monarchial government. Colonial governments, geographically far from the crown, opporated without elaborate bureaucracy. Government was the “enlisting and mobilizing of the power of private persons to carry out public ends.” Office holding was a burden and without salivary: politicians served out of a sense of civic duty and respect for a social contract. Officials justified their rule by divine write, claiming that God appointed them as leaders.

Republicanism

As republicanism replaced monarchy, enlightenment ideas caused elements from colonial society to wane, including the roles of religion and hirearchy, the prominence of the nuclear family, and systems of patronage and gentlemanly distinction. Republicanism did not suddenly kick out monarchy, but replaced it in a slow process. Monarchy did not work in the US because of religious heterogeneity: the Anglican Church had no monopoly. Americans could not maintain tenantry. When Americans rid themselves of monarchy, they were not left with a power vacuum but transitioned somewhat smoothly into a republican system.

Republicanism was a radical ideology, the child of the enlightenment. It recognized men as equal and inherently political beings, which disrupted the systems of hierarchy.

The shift loosened the bands of society. The idea of divine rule began to dry up. The family structure as it was know disintegrated, with both daughters and sons leaving their parents’ homes to explore their own options. They began to have a greater say in their own marriages.

Democracy

Republican revolutionaries aimed to destroy the social institutions that dominated the colonial years. Democracy encouraged the idea of equality. But as early as 1791, critics began to see the danger of freedom and of freedom mixed with economic self-interest. In the name of democracy, lower classes struggled to have their voices heard by aristocratic politicians. Labor unions and political parties began to organize.

Paper money and debt were both introduced. When the revolutionary war ended and government military spending stopped, the economy ceased to be stimulated in that way and Americans fell on hard economic times. Powers organized against local interests in fear of factions.

Analysis and criticism

Criticism of The Radicalism of the American Revolution claims that Wood fails to link the American Revolution with the social revolution outlined in his book. The capital “R” Revolution refers to events surrounding the Revolutionary war, while Wood’s un-capitalized “revolution” refers to the social changes outlined in the book. The Revolution did not spark the democratization of America, rather this was a product of crowing commerce and a restless population .The connection Wood draws between the revolution and the slavery’s loosened grip in the north is one example of a change in thinking bound to occur with a population with a greater mind for economic freedom. This claim does not reflect the population’s opinion. The book celebrates democracy more than it explains it . Wood’s treatment of slavery is contained in just two paragraphs, apart from which this problematic issue of early America is not addressed . The book’s first section, Monarchy, presents arguments that are torn apart in the second section, Republicanism. The two sections present American society at the same point in time with very different takes on the roles of social institutions. The book fails to address Thomas Paine’s Common Sense as a mobilizing factor towards revolution .

References

• H.G. Pitt, The Radicalism of the American Revolution [The English Historical Review]April 1994
• Frank Shuffelton, The Radicalism of the American Revolution [Eighteenth-Century Studies] The Johns Hopkins University Press 1993
• Drew R. McCoy, The Radicalism of the American Revolution [Journal of American History] 1993
• Alan Taylor, The Radicalism of the American Revolution [The Historical Journal] Cambridge University Press 1992