Blog #4: Rethinking the Revolution

1. The invention of the camera before the Civil War rendered it the first modern war. With a camera, historians could actually capture the human drama on film for the first time ever.

2. America's longest declared war was in fact the Revolutionary War, lasting over 8 years and killing 1 man for every 4 who served in the Continental Army as opposed to 1 for every 5 perishing in the Civil War. 

3. While we remember military leaders from the Civil War such as Generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Ulysses S. Grant, the leaders we remember from the American Revolution are all civilians, like Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry.

4. Popular paintings like Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) gave distorted, glorified views of the events. Unlike the Civil War, there are no images of the mangled bodies or gaunt soldiers. 

5. Vietnam was America's first war that was shown on television, which showed the harsh realities of war while at the same time cast war as an everyday occurrence, as people could simply switch on and off their TV.