Revolution - Assignment Example

Revolution REVOLUTION ‘Taming the revolution’ refers to the concerted attempts to control and shape public memory about the revolution by leaders of the Whig Sons of Liberty (Young, 2001). The Whig leadership was the main proponent in this taming of the Revolution and was mainly made up of ‘middling’ men. They sought to deal with the problem of the volatile and unpredictable mobile class or ‘mob’ and set about harnessing and suppressing them. The Whig-owned patriot press admonished mob activities by writing on how violence, mobs, confusion, and tumult would hurt the cause, essentially roping in the merchant class that had the most to gain from stability.

They also sought to control commemorations of events marking the Revolution, politicizing memories of British colonial oppression to their purpose. Another example was the Massacre oration, which replaced the Stamp Act protest and Pope’s Day that were mainly days commemorated by the ‘mob’ (Young, 2001). The Whig leaders were able to do this because they dominated the newspapers and town meeting, had support from dissenting church clergy, and lacked any credible rivals that could sustain alternative memories of the Revolution.

In the 1800s, when there was a massive shift in these commemorations towards the veterans and battles of the Revolutionary War. By the mid-1820s, jubilee commemorations of local military Revolutionary events were observed with fervor. The Whig leaders and the elites were also becoming more comfortable with commemorating war events because of the ambiguity and controversy surrounding pre-Revolution events, as well as the consensus these war commemorations brought between the leaders and the people (Young, 2001).

Although the Conservatives still orchestrated Revolution-related ceremonial rituals, the popular side of the Revolution became increasingly central to the commemorations as the festive rituals became democratized. This democratization of the Revolution’s memory led to increased veneration of Revolution veterans, who had been the popular side of the Revolution. Moreover, newspapers and books began to increasingly focus their attention on the re-war revolutionary activities that had popularized the Revolution among the popular side in the first place (Young, 2001).

Finally, this democratization of the Revolution’s memory also brought back the popular side through the subsequent new, radical movements claiming the Revolution, including the popular destruction of the tea movement. The destruction of the tea and the Revolution’s place in American history has been assured, with both constituting sacred moments and achieving American icon status (Young, 2001). The memory of the Revolution and the destruction of the tea continue to be appropriated today, with different claims to the Revolution’s popular memory by people at multiple points of the political spectrum in the US.

This should be seen as a sign of the fact that the destruction of the tea and the revolution has achieved iconic status and acceptance across the US. Indeed, both events today continue to be claimed by the Democrats and the Republicans. In addition, the events have been cited in several popular protest movements in the US, including anti-Vietnam War protests that claimed the great tradition of the Revolution and the destruction of the tea in justifying their disobedience. Moreover, Bostonians today celebrate the Revolution with their own holidays, including Evacuation Day, Patriot’s Day, and Bunker Hill Day (Young, 2001).

Whereas the destruction of the tea is not celebrated as a fully-fledged holiday, it is still reenacted annually.ReferenceYoung, A. F. (2001). The shoemaker and the tea party: Memory and the American Revolution. Boston: Beacon Press.