The whole myth of the American Revolution was that the Americans were fighting for their individual freedoms from the European colonial powers.
It was a myth in the sense that it was what the revolutionaries told themselves. But I don’t think it was a myth in that it was false. The people writing those proclamations were bourgeois and it was a bourgeois revolution they were supporting. If you look at American mythos as only applying to land owning white men, as was intended, it’s a lot easier to see that the founders likely meant what they said, just not seeing anyone outside of their intended ruling class as people deserving of the same considerations.
Totally right. By mythology I meant not necessarily the history, but the collective view of that history which has turned the events and characters into a quasi-religion. Like all myths, there is a kernel of truth.
It was a myth in the sense that it was what the revolutionaries told themselves. But I don’t think it was a myth in that it was false. The people writing those proclamations were bourgeois and it was a bourgeois revolution they were supporting. If you look at American mythos as only applying to land owning white men, as was intended, it’s a lot easier to see that the founders likely meant what they said, just not seeing anyone outside of their intended ruling class as people deserving of the same considerations.
Totally right. By mythology I meant not necessarily the history, but the collective view of that history which has turned the events and characters into a quasi-religion. Like all myths, there is a kernel of truth.