
originally published 3/2/2001
Aspects of modernity were already present and at work in colonial American life prior to 1776, explains historian Jon Butler, author of Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776 (Harvard University Press, 2001). Americans during that time saw themselves as different from European societies, particularly in their religious pluralism, their commitment to participatory politics, and their material prosperity which extended to various class levels. Butler describes colonial Americans as consciously shaping a society that had not been shaped before, amounting in effect to a “cultural revolution” prior to the political revolution of 1776. This interview was originally published on Volume 48 of the Journal.
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