American Revolution: The People As Constituents

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Pages: 2

In The American Revolution: The People As Constituents, the author, R.R Palmer lays out the argument that the people were the major power behind the American Revolution. To start off Palmer says that the ideas of the revolution were not just unique to America. As you are aware many of the key concepts during the revolution were used in the enlightenment such as Locke and the idea of the social contract. These ideas were created in Europe, but were implemented in the U.S during the revolution. The author puts a quote from Napoleon when he became Emperor saying that he was the “Constituent power”(Palmer, P.160). What napoleon meant by this was that he did not have the power of the people like the United States did or the colonies at that time.