Text 1: Historian Park argues that the American Revolution was fundamentally a conservative movement. The colonists fought to preserve traditional English liberties — common law, property rights, representative government — that they believed Parliament had violated. Their goals were restorative, not radical.
Text 2: Historian Singh accepts that revolutionary rhetoric drew on English traditions but argues that the revolution's outcomes were radical. Establishing a republic without a king, drafting written constitutions, and asserting popular sovereignty broke decisively with monarchical and parliamentary precedent. Whatever the colonists intended, the revolution they made was new.
The authors most clearly disagree about
- A
whether the revolution produced a republic.
- B
whether the colonists used traditional English liberties as rhetoric.
- C
whether the American Revolution drew on English traditions.
- Dcheck_circle
whether the revolution should be characterized as conservative or radical.
Explanation
Both accept the rhetorical roots and the republican outcome. They differ on framing. B captures the evaluative dispute.