No other American history subject is thought to have as many different perspectives as the American Revolution. Because the American Revolution encouraged critical and historical interpretation, it is crucial to comprehend how historians read it differently.
The Progressive Interpretation
The American Revolutions have thus been referred to in narratives and biographies using terms like republic synthesis, neo-Whigs, Progressive, and other names. In the context of the progressive and the revolutionary interpretation, they are described collectively.
The knowledge of the twenty-first century was the basis for the progressive interpretation. The progressive perspective was created in such a manner that it carefully considers the Revolution in the context of a class conflict. The diversion exists between the economic and the rank dispute (Carr 34). The ideas do not have a significant role in defining the casual power and also the rhetoric of the revolutionaries tends to be designed to cover the interests of the mainstream population.
In 1909, the dual revolution thesis was postulated where Carl Becker argued the subject of American Revolution from the basis of two questions. The first question was the issue of subject rule and the second which was supposed to rule at the time. At the time, colonialists were struggling with Great Britain while there was an apparent class struggle that was literally taking place.
Years later an extended essay by Charles Beard was released and that appeared to be more ruminative than it was researched. In the paper, it was argued that there are major economic and class interests in the society that guided the decision-making process by the delegates. The reactions were used in the Constitutional Convention and aided in the understanding of the ratification process.
Meanwhile, the apex of the interpretation process was realized in the work of Merril Jense who stated that the American Revolution followed a second progressive process. The internal revolution that was carried out by the masses of people who were against the imposed aristocracy. The Revolution of 1776 was a radical move that was associated with the populist uprising and with the constitutional convention that was critical as a feature from representing the elite. The representation was particularly important in the convention (Carr 35).
The Revolutionary Interpretation
The other kind of thinking that has been used in the understanding of the American Revolution was postulated in the context of the revolutionary interpretation. The two major advocates for this type of thinking are South Carolina’s David Ramsay and Massachusetts’s Otis Warren.
Ramsay wrote the book The History of the American Revolution (1789). The story describes how virtuous groups of merchants won their independence and were liberated from the British oppression. The Revolution was thus perceived as a crisis because the constitution did not offer for the rights of the mainstream. The crisis has been brought up by the resistance of the imperial forces and the colonists who had a massive influence.
Mercy Otis Warren was the first female historian who had written about the History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution (1805) (Beard 3). In the book, the author highlighted a different approach to the interpretation of the concept of revolution where it was perceived as a boon of liberty. She was thus involved in the revolution by herself as she had witnessed its onset. She perceived the experiences that occurred in the 1760s and the 1770s as happenings that constituted the tyranny of the colonies (Carr 54).
Therefore, they interpreted the whole incidence as a story that was founded on the principle of a moral story that meant to warn the readers against eschewing virtue and the corrupt British officials.
The Causes of the American Revolution
From both viewpoints, it appears that the similarity lies in the fact that the British angered the American and sparked the war. They would spread out, colonizing whoever they came across. It is thus traced to the fact that there was oppression by the British encouraged people to resist and in the process the Revolution ensured. The wrangles were centered around the need to establish dominance and control of the land with opposing forces ensuring that there were battles.
Two arguments also present major differences because of the varying principles in understanding of the concept of war in the Industrial Revolution. Of particular importance is the fact that it was necessary to establish a constitution to protect the citizens from oppression. It thus meant that the revolutionary approach was primarily centered on the fact that there was a need for a boon of liberty.
Meanwhile, the progressive viewpoint perceived the Revolution from a contradictory point because for the progressive interpretation, the idea was largely an effect of the conflict between the class factors and the economic interests. The class struggles were largely understood from an internal basis as it was apparent that there was a need to meet the real causal power (Beard 5).
Conclusion
From my understanding, the American Revolution resulted largely from the effect of both sides. The greed by the British, however, appears to have been the central factor behind the war because they were only interested in their own interests and inconsiderate about the mainstream groups.
As the mother country to the colonialism of the eighteenth century, the British ended up enacting laws that were unbearable to other groups and in the process they seemed to be in control of everything. It is upon this basis that resistance was formed as the responders, especially the Americans, ganged up to fight for equality. The motivation to fight even further was fueled by the fact that there was a need for American representatives being included in the Parliament (Beard 45).
The fact that there were classes in the society further fueled up the problem ended in the war.
In summary, it should be pointed out that the American Revolution has been subject to varied interpretation. Two of such viewpoints are presented by the progressive and the revolutionary approaches. The progressive idea focuses on the fact that there was a conflict in the class factors and the economic interest that later ended in war. Meanwhile, it is described that the problem was perceived differently from the perspective of the revolutionists who believed in the need for a constitution that appeared to be an emergency. Overall, the whole idea was due to the British oppression as ground gathered to oppose oppressive rule.
Works Cited
Beard, M. T. (2014). “War Rights and Military Virtues: A Philosophical Re-Appraisal of Just War Theory” http://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/96 Accessed 2 October
Carr, Joaquin. The American Revolution. Gwangzhou, China: Benchmark Education Company, LLC, 2011. Print.
