American Revolution's Emphasis On Individual Rights

The American Revolution was in many ways a conflict over liberty -- a war between the ideology of the old world (as represented by the monarchy and the crown) and the new world (as represented by the Romantic/Enlightenment doctrine illustrated in Thomas Paine's Rights of Man). This paper will discuss the ways in which the early political experiences of our nation's forefathers gave the American political culture a preoccupation with the assertion of individual rights.

Foundational Ideology

The American Revolution was, in a way, a testing ground for the French Revolution that followed -- which gives a better understanding of Revolution in general and the ideas that were at the heart of it. While the Americans drafted their Declaration of Independence in 1776, asserting their individual rights -- the National Assembly of France drafted its Declaration of the Rights of Man a decade later...
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