British Historians and the Changing Significance of the American Revolution

Simon P. Newman
-

The Cambridge historian Sir Denis Brogan helped lead a change in

popular British perceptions of the United States. He believed that the
principles contained in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights were
universal rather than particular. During the war and shortly after, there was
the sentiment in Europe that the United States embodied and protected
liberty and democratic government not just at home but all over the world.
- Historians played a pivotal role in helping to fashion this image of the U.S.
and its role and significance in the world. This attitude led to the creation
of American History and American Studies departments at universities all
over the U.K.
- Beginning with the 2000s, events in the U.S. have challenged both
academic and popular British interpretations of the nature and the
contemporary significance of the Ameican Revolution and the valued
enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill
of Rights.
1. Laying out the American context for the interpretation of the Revolution
and its great texts
2. Exploring how and why and with what significance two major British
historians led the way in extolling the virtues of The Charters of Freedom
and all that they represent
3. Discussion of recent changes in the United States that have unbdermined
the admiration for the Americxan Revolution and the ideals of its founding
documents that once characterized British scholarship and popular
attitudes.