tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post8070603272575032982..comments2024-03-28T15:48:11.151-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES: A TUTORIAL PART NINERobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-86866266529400104332011-07-27T03:46:00.362-04:002011-07-27T03:46:00.362-04:00The two distinct revolutions I mentioned above inc...The two distinct revolutions I mentioned above included (I) a legal-cum-constitutional one that enabled a fundamentally new entity to emerge from the wreckage of the old Union; and (II) a social-political revolution that flared out from the reformist intelligentsia. <br /><br />Revolution-I was quick (mid-1861) and involved a resolution to the philosophical paradox posed by a secession within a republic. <br /><br />Revolution-II was prolonged, ambiguous, and uncertain. It began after the issue of greenbacks and rapidly grew in scope. Greenbacks were the nexus between I & II.James R MacLeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14721224895163793981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-63036497854361981352011-07-27T03:37:14.931-04:002011-07-27T03:37:14.931-04:00I've long been quietly fascinated by the point...I've long been quietly fascinated by the point with which you began this post: the old saw, that the victors write the history books, failed to apply in the <a href="http://jrm-research.blogspot.com/2006/12/usonian-and-eurovian.html#6238141779170420073" rel="nofollow">Usonian</a> Civil War (UCW).<br /><br />Eventually I came to the conclusion that (a) people don't really look at the UCW in a comparative way; it's nearly always written about or discussed as an historically exceptional event; and (b) all wars are revolutionary to some degree for the belligerents, and civil wars differ in the revolutionary aspect being especially obvious.<br /><br />Wars have strong naming conventions which prevent this sort of uniform comparison; to my way of thinking, the American Revolution I would regard as an Anglo-Saxon Civil War/Revolution (ASCR), and the Civil War was in fact two distinct revolutions followed by a long series of thermidorean reactions.<br /><br />Seen in this light, the business about writing history books takes on <i>some elements</i> of class conflict: the newly emerging business managerial class in the USA was represented in the universities by a loyal, like-minded cohort of scholars doing scholarship-management. They had "quietly" squashed the victors of 1865-1870, and now needed to de-legitimize them as architects of a new social order.James R MacLeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14721224895163793981noreply@blogger.com