Why American History Is Not What They Say: An Introduction to Revisionism by Jeff Riggenbach

Author:Jeff Riggenbach [Riggenbach, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781933550497
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute
Published: 2009-11-13T20:00:00+00:00

II

The Decline of American Liberalism—the Early Years

The socialist apostasy, however partial, proved more popular in Europe than in America—at first. At first, American liberals hewed closely enough to their individualist values to shake off any temptation they might have felt to adopt the socialist line. Still, as the late Arthur Ekirch contends in his classic work The Decline of American Liberalism,

[s]ince the time of the American Revolution, the major trend in our history has been in the direction of an ever-greater centralization and concentration of control—politically, economically, and socially. As a part of this drift toward "state capitalism" or "socialism," the liberal values associated with the eighteenth-century Enlightenment—and especially that of individual freedom—have slowly lost their primary importance in American life and thought.

"The American Revolution was liberal," Ekirch maintains, though this claim, even on his own terms, is debatable. As he himself notes, later in the same book, "any war, even one fought over some great moral principle, involves the use of methods essentially illiberal; [...] the very substance of liberalism [...] is bound to suffer in wartime." And "this incompatibility of war and liberalism" was certainly on display during the American Revolution, most notably in the treatment peaceable loyalists received at the hands of the revolutionaries and their supporters.260

Consider Kenneth Roberts's portrayal of the loyalist plight, in his 1940 novel of the revolution, Oliver Wiswell: "They had been harried, spied on, lied about, informed against, robbed and insulted; and they longed achingly for [British General William] Howe and his army, so that they might be freed from the oppressions and the restrictions of Congress, mobs, and committees." One Long Island loyalist tells Roberts's title character:

"This island is three-quarters Loyalist; but we can't do the things the rebels do. They send in militia from other colonies, or bring their mobs from New York. They have no homes here; no families; no belongings except what they have on their backs. We have! If we fight 'em, they seize our cattle, burn our barns and houses, and drive our families across the Sound. I can name hundreds of people, right in this neighborhood, who've been up to their necks in misery and ruin for over a year, just because they were known to be against rebellion."261

It would appear, then, that at least some of the "liberals" involved in the American Revolution were themselves disinclined to respect the natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of those who disagreed with the aims of the revolution. Nevertheless, as Ekirch notes, the revolutionaries' ideological leaders apparently "were not prepared for the conservative countermovement and nationalistic consolidation that followed the war."262

Thomas Jefferson, for example, believed, with virtually all liberals, that "[e]conomic paternalism in behalf of certain privileged groups was [...] the main source of the tyranny and political corruption that he saw in Europe. It was such a set of evils that American liberals desired, at all costs, to avoid." And yet, "the war itself had helped to breed a new aristocracy of

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