Critical Review<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perspectives<\/em><\/p>\n

In their introduction, the curators ask: \u201cHow did people interpret the events of the American Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?\u201d and \u201cIn what ways has the Revolution meant different things to different people at any given time?\u201d I was prepared to be disappointed, but the curators delivered an impressively broad range of perspectives, including patriot colonists’ point of view, views of Englishmen across the ocean, and the perspective of enslaved persons.<\/p>\n

Though the authors are careful to explicitly state the point of views representing in their first set of documents describing colonial reaction to the revolution. The curators write:<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo points are worth noting: First, both of these texts present the perspectives of people who resisted British rule\u2026 Second, the events to which these writers respond occurred in the years before the military conflict actually began in 1775. It is only in retrospect, knowing the Revolution would soon begin, that historians can look to these sources for evidence of the cultural and political climate that would soon lead many colonists to take up arms against British rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, such explicit disclaimers are nonexistent after that. The collection is redeemed by its effort to include primary sources from so many different people on different sides of the conflict, but it would have been helpful for the curators to continue to openly qualify the documents.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Quality of primary sources<\/em><\/p>\n

Primary sources include broadsides, speech transcriptions, printed images, song\/poems, and a map. Overall the curators provided quality sources, including sources that seem only tangentially related to the American Revolution, but actually greatly contribute to our understanding of it.<\/p>\n

The source set representing the construction of American national identity in the 19^{th<\/sup> century hosts some of the most interesting sources. This set is also interesting as a primary\/secondary crossover source. These 19th<\/sup> century sources tell the narrative arc of the revolution as it was memorialized, providing an important step for us today in monitoring our reactions to revolutionary sources\u2014if we can see how national opinions were shaped, we can understand better why we might react the way we do today as Americans looking back at our history.<\/p>\n}

Another unconventional but highly relevant source that the curators include is James Theodore Holly’s \u201cA Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro Race for Self-Government, and Civilized Progress, as Demonstrated by Historical Events of the Haytian Revolution.\u201d This source brings the American Revolution into a more global perspective (beyond England), as well as acknowledging the important intellectual and strategic contributions of a minority group.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

User Interface<\/strong><\/p>\n

The user interface for this collection is well-designed.<\/p>\n

Overall, the design packages resources relating to the document sets in a way that clearly indicates the sources’ original context, as well as allowing users to search for other relevant information. The curators provided a very clear, hyperlinked table of contents which lets users quickly jump to their desired section. Each primary source image stands out on a white background, and its metadata set is easily accessible by clicking the tab just to the right of the image. Captions provide a helpful, quick summary of the image. Each source is also tagged with a variety of key words. If a user clicks on a tag, it takes them to a page with related items found in other digital collections of the Newberry Library.<\/p>\n

Aesthetically, the interface makes good use of appropriately contrasting colors and readable fonts. The site as a whole is a little bit text-heavy in certain sections, and might do better to place primary source boxes in the text body rather than providing the summary write-up for each set and then showcasing all the primary sources in a row.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Utility <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The utility of the Archive \u201cDigital Collections for Classroom-Representing the American Revolution, 1768\u20131893\u201d is to serve as a resource for students wishing to further explore the historical implications of the American Revolution. This is a very valuable asset to students because it contains multiple types of sources, such as written texts, maps, and pictures. These are all very valuable as it enables students to further strengthen their knowledge by analyzing the historical context behind a wide range of sources. This archive also includes a great amount of primary sources, further extending opportunities to analyze historical documents. It also appears that this archive caters to the high school age students, because after each source there is a list of questions to consider while reading, making it easier for a younger demographic to follow along with these sources.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n