History 233 Reading Guide
DISCUSSION: Inheriting the Revolution
- Joyce Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans (2000)
Questions:
- What (considered complexly) did the generation, born between 1776 and 1800, inherit?
- How did that inheritance shape their experiences, very broadly conceived? How did their experiences in a transformative society determine their response to that inheritance?
- How can we best characterize the changes that she describes in this many-threaded, multi-layered cultural history?
- Why did she present the cultural themes in this particular order? What arguments is she making about each theme, how does she link them, and toward what larger argument?
- Whose story is this? Who has been left out of the story? How does that inclusion, and that omission, shape some of her conclusions?
- According to Appleby, what did the inheriting generation achieve? What did it leave still unresolved?
- Are you persuaded?