The American Revolution Wim Klooster Summary

1524 Words4 Pages

Much history is presented as dull, sequential events, with no fervor behind their implication. As is the case of the revolutions that graced the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The American, French, Haitian, and Spanish American revolutions sealed the final nail of the Renaissance: that absolutism has died and the people shall be in control. Wim Klooster, a professor of history at Clark University engages his audience with predominant themes and events that led to the eventual revolutions. He presents the rationale for the four revolutions not as a dry chronology, but as simple and evocative cause-and-effect scenarios.
A good majority of Klooster’s work is centered around the events that led to the revolutions themselves. He, …show more content…

Minorities and native people were unjustly targeted by both the state and rebels. While many Native American tribes sided with the British against the spreading American settlers, both sides took part in the killing of Indians in the back country, resulting in the largely disproportional amount of deaths attributed to the Revolutionary War. Klooster acknowledges the plight of people of color during these tumultuous times, stating that it was a ripe breeding ground for the advocacy of equal representation, freedom of practice and speech, and equal rights in …show more content…

Still common in the nineteenth century were the limitations on voting, whereas the voter had to be of a race, usually white, have certain ascribed status of wealth and own property. It took nearly a century after the Declaration of Independence was signed so that men of color may vote in America, and century and half so that women may vote and nearly two hundred years before all persons could vote with an ease of mind. However, this inclusivity in government was a prevailing thought during the revolutions; the French constitution adopted in 1793 “abolished all tax and wealth requirements for male voters.” While perhaps the world may be better off without the constant intercession of kings, the democratic spirit of equality and liberty has shaped it into what it is today.
REVIEWS: Klooster’s analysis seeks to fill the fifty-year gap left by R.R. Palmer’s The Age of Democratic Revolution, the last complete work to analyze the revolutions of the Atlantic world and their impact on modern society. Yet for such a daunting task to undertake, not all reviewers were praiseworthy in assessing Klooster’s performance. Claims of not representing the entire populace and omission of key facts were common in the reviews. While subjectively happy that the work was completed, it was not a complete

Open Document