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For real, though.
I’ve scrolled through the other blog posts and I see I might be the first to write about this so here’s my chance to bias everyone’s opinion! (Just like Thomas Paine)
The stance which the author of The Rise of American Democracy Wilentz takes on the American Revolution can almost be classified as Marxist. He prefaces his talk on the American Revolution with outlining of both the country and urban democracy, and defines the development of both as class struggle, with in each respective case the Rural farmers struggling against the aristocratic landowners or the Urban working class and petty merchants struggling against intelligentsia, Enlightenment era political leaders. Wilentz essentially outlines the causes of the American Revolution in the same manner that one would outline a revolution in Europe, with an extremely focus not on The British domination of Americans, and draws attention to the socio-economic conditions which existed within the colonies at the time. He makes his case by citing famous writings like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense as driving factors which increased antagonism towards both the British and the ruling elite as a whole.
So far I’m finding the new perspective very interesting and I’m honestly very excited to read on and see where Wilentz is going with this.