You say you want a revolution...: WW Chapter 17

The ideas of revolution were...well... revolutionary in the 18th and 19th centuries, if not in their concept (for the idea of revolt had existed long before then) then in their execution. I have learned about the American revolution at different stages in my education and each time I feel I learn something new. This time, the new tidbit of information came in the form of the idea that America's break from England came not so much in order to establish new freedoms, but instead to preserve the freedoms that they had already been enjoying and which England now threatened to take away. This actually makes a lot of sense, as people are even more likely to value something that they already have in the face of losing it than they are to strive to get something they don't yet have.

I also found it interesting that the French revolution was in part inspired by the American revolution. I know that the ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau were also important in challenging the concept that man's natural state is one of subjectivity to government. I have read many books by Rousseau, and I see numerous concepts that have found their way into our government. Examples are his idea that the public should revisit the government every so often to ask two questions: Is this form of government working for us? and Are these the people we want running this government? These are questions which we now essentially revisit every election year at the ballot box.

Another interesting development which the book attributes in part to the Atlantic revolutions is the idea of nationalism. Many good things came out of these revolutions, such as a resurgence in the rights of the previously marginalized, and also the beginning of the end of slavery. Nationalism, however, I would argue has actually been a pretty dangerous thing, and I had never before thought that it would have risen out of developments which on the whole I consider positive. After all, I think that there exist numerous examples, especially in the 20th century, of nationalism being a negative thing. Would Hitler have been as successful at rallying Germany to commit such atrocities without the help of a very strong nationalistic fervor in Germany at that time? Likewise, I would argue that many of our military missteps of the last few decades have at least some basis in America's own nationalistic tendencies.