Read through the series of texts on the website the American Revolution: a revolution? (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/revolution/revo1.htm).

1		How do this question and the question of the origins of this event interrelate? If you believe the American Revolution was an actual revolution, does that necessarily place you on one side of the debate about whether its origins were political/intellectual or social/economic?
2		On what side of the political versus economic debate does the text indicate that Brinton, Skocpol, Lipset and Gottschalk come down? What do you see as the strengths of their arguments as articulated by this site? What do you see as the weaknesses?
3		Based on your reading of this site and the debates explained in Where Historians Disagree, how would you answer these questions? Was the American Revolution really a revolution? Which explanation of the origins of the Revolution do you find most persuasive- the political/intellectual view, the social/economic approach or a combination of the two? Why?

Read through “The Chronicle of the Revolution” (http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle/index.html) on the PBS website Liberty!.

4		Which side of the debate does this narrative seem to support? Specify the parts of the narrative, if any, that you believe enhance the political/intellectual side and those that support the social/economic side.
5		Based on these websites and the Where Historians Disagree section of the text, why should it matter which side of this debate we find most convincing?

Other sites with primary and secondary sources about the American Revolution and its origins include:

6		All the News? The American Revolution and Maryland’s Press- contemporary reportage on the events of the Revolution by the Maryland Gazette. http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1259/121/5912/html/0000.html Rare Map Collection- Revolutionary America http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/revamer.html The Revolutionary War: A Journey Towards Freedom http://library.thinkquest.org/10966/ The Papers of George Washington- writings by and about Washington. http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/