Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Weakening his thesis

Doesn’t this challenge the idea that the revolution was “radical”?

“Nowhere had the republicanizing of monarchy gone further. The Americans did not have to invent republicanism in 1776; they only had to bring it to the surface. It was there all along.”

1 comment:

  1. Good point Kevin. My understanding is that republican theories and political values existed in monarchial England, but that a republican form of government could not be fully instituted under a monarch. Americans had no monarchy, so the full monty of republican poltical theory along with a republican form of government could be established more completely than in England. in this standpoint, the republicanism in England could come into full bloom in America.

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