Appraising the American Revolution

Report Outline
Bicentennial Urge for Reflection
Interpretations by the Historians
Modern Views of the Revolution
Special Focus

Bicentennial Urge for Reflection

Questions Raised by Study of Revolution

The aspect of the bicentennial celebration that is likely to have the most lasting consequences is the stimulus it has given to a popular exploration of the nation's past. While most of the festivities and ceremonies have centered on the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the scope of the backward look at the nation's beginnings actually has been much wider. It embraces not only the American Revolution, but the crucial preceding years that gave rise to the demand for independence and the following years when the survival and good health of the young nation became assured.

The attention now focusing on the nation's early history raises or revives some haunting questions: What did the American Revolution really stand for? Was it a true revolution or merely a secession from the mother country? What was the relationship between the colonists' strike for nationhood and the principles of democracy, freedom and equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the federal Constitution adopted 11 years later? To what extent have those principles prevailed over the 200 years of national history? How viable are they today, and how viable will they be in the future?

Implicit in the celebration of the bicentennial is the question: What of the tricentennial? Or, where will we be, in terms of the Revolution's goals and the aspirations of the founding fathers, 100 years from now?