When Americans think of the Revolutionary War we think of fellow Americans taking up arms together to fight off foreign control. However, after reading this article I discovered that there was much more politics involved within the American war. In 17th century America, the disparity of wealth and oppression against the poor was for a lack of better terms at an all-time high. In Boston, for example, the wealthiest individuals (upper 5 %) owned roughly 50% of the assets located in Boston. This enraged the lower class citizens and caused them to riot against the upper-class citizens. With England still having a grasp on the colonies the elite discovered that they could harness the anger of the lower class citizens to get the English out of the colonies and that’s exactly what happened. Obviously not what I would have thought would have occurred during the American Revolution.
I find it extremely interesting how these topics we learn in middle school, as well as high school, do not provide us with the full story as to what happened through history. For example, in elementary school we were taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America where in actuality he massacred an entire nation. Another example is MLK and the impact that he had on Civil Rights. Nowhere was it ever discussed the impact Mrs. King had on Civil Rights and after Mr. Kings’s death the impact she continued to have. Now also learning about the American Revolution it truly opens my eyes and makes me question a lot of history I have learned throughout the years.
I agree, I had no idea how extreme the economic unrest between the classes were in Colonial America leading up to the Revolutionary War. In high school and middle school we are taught that the Americans were true underdogs and they were all united against England from the beginning, but clearly that is not entirely true. I think it is interesting the way that the history textbooks choose to portray this event in time.
I agree with what you said that it is interesting how we are taught in grade school only part of the story instead of what really happened. It really makes you rethink what you have been taught and second guess what really happened.
I agree that it is a problem that we aren’t given the whole story of historical events when we learn them for the first. I can see why, for simplicity’s sake, middle schoolers would only be taught a certain amount, but we never learn the rest later on unless we take a specific course.
What we learn in school has a lot to dow ith politics. Someone picks and chooses what we are taught and what is left out. So, I am not surprised that there was so much more to the American Revolution then we thought.
I completely agree that what we learn in school is in no way provided in its full accuracy. I think that it is extremely valuable to consider how many people do not reach or attend higher learning institutions and accept a lot of these ‘teachings’ as truth. Further, the politics of the American revolution is something I also thought was very interesting–especially in the way it reevaluated the revolution.
I do believe that it is a problem in our education system that our teachers do not include all of the causes of certain events or all of the facts. By doing this, it leaves the children with only parts of the story and not the whole thing. I do understand that they can’t teach really young children about the truth of Christopher Columbus but once they reach high school they are mature enough to know.