Content area
Full Text
The Two Faces of American Freedom By Aziz Rana. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010.
The American Revolution was a transformative event in world history, when the idea of self-rule was first articulated and put into practice. But, Aziz Rana reminds us, the idea of self rule was often compromised by older ideas of empire. While Americans struggled to make good their democratic promise, they continued to impose rule over nonwhites, women, and foreigners in ways that limited the Revolution's radical promise. Liberty for those inside, Rana concludes, was premised on ruling others. These are the two faces of American freedom.
This is a work of synthesis, and most of the claims Rana makes will be unsurprising to scholars of American history. But Rana's interpretation of the American past helps make sense of the Revolution's democratic potential, and also the problems facing American democracy today.
The Two Faces of American Freedom opens with the story of Anglo colonization. To Rana, the colonial experience taught Americans the benefits of self-rule, and thus made them especially sensitive to England's efforts to impose its authority over settlers during the Imperial Crisis. The Revolution was a "settler revolt" that raised the possibility of "republican self-rule." (14-15) Rather than be subject to authority, citizens would govern themselves. But this promise was limited to those granted full citizenship. For others, the Revolution did not alter their subject status. Instead, the new republic was a "settler empire" that relied on expansion to maintain settler equality, and thus required imperial rule over Native Americans.
Despite its limitations, republican ideology was radical for those included in the republic. Small farmers and artisans shared a vision of active government committed to enacting the popular will. National elites...