Group items tagged

The American Revolution gave birth to a new country, but now, more than 200 years later, so many stories of this incredible time in history are yet untold. Most of us know about Paul Revere, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and perhaps even Molly Pitcher, but what of the smaller, yet equally important roles played by American Patriots?

The outbreak of the war changed Emerson, who had disdained political parties, mistrusted philanthropic efforts, and once called himself "a seeing eye, not a helping hand." He labeled the war "a new glass to see all our old things through." It was "instructor," "searcher" "magnetizer" and "reconciler." Emerson the individualist and idealist may have bristled at the churning power of the machinery of war, but Emerson the patriot and realist welcomed the struggle for the birth of a new social order. "The War," Emerson realized, "is serving many good purposes .... War shatters everything flimsy and shifty, sets aside all false issues, and breaks through all that is not real as itself."