A:
The American thinks highly of two essential conditions of the stable community: unity and loyalty .... The American political mind has never thought much along consciously radical lines .... The true reactionary ... wants literally to recreate the past ... The American Revolution was as respectful of the past as an authentic, large-scale rebellion can ever be .... They had little desire to make the world over. The world-at least their comer of it -had already been made over to their general satisfaction .... For more than three centuries all manner of Americans have fought with much success to maintain the established political and social order .... The ideas of the colonial Right carried over strongly into the early years of the Republic ... Government by the favored few, the primacy of the community, reverence for the established order, aversion to change-these were the marks of the notable political philosophy, a kind of incipient American conservatism .... The enduring monument to their success is the American Constitution.-Clinton Rossiter, Conservatism in America, 1962
B:
B: Most Americans ... scarcely grasped the immensity of the fundamental forces at work in the Western world. They were, of course, conscious of changes and disruptions in the customs of their lives. Yet, habituated as they were to ... stability and continuity, most were not disposed to perceive, much less understand, the structural shifts taking place in their society .... The imperial crisis with Great Britain and the American Revolution itself were simply clarifying incidents in this larger story of America's democratic revolution .... The growth and movement of people strained and broke apart households, churches, and neighborhoods. Young men particu larly became more autonomous and more independent of paternal and patronage relationships .... Everywhere older hierarchies were broken apart and traditional paternalistic ties were severed .... Common people now had the financial ability to purchase "luxury" goods that previously had been the preserve of the gentry ... distinc tions of rank were even more blurred than they were in England .... These were the complaints of social con servatives alamed by this conspicuous consumption and the social disorder it engendered.-Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, 1991
1) Explain the differences between Interpretation A and Interpretation B:
2) Specific Historical Evidence to Support A (not mentioned in passage):
3) Specific Historical Evidence to Support B (not mentioned in passage):
