Today I saw the film------The Patriot (2000, directed Roland Emmerich), although I have saw it several years ago. I don't know what's your feeling when you see it, but I'd like to share my feeling and thinking with you.
Its name is The Patriot, while in my opinion, this definition draws a hasty generation. As you know, most of the stories happened before American Independence. Now that the United States of America was not founded at that time, we could not call them patriots. If we want to name them as patriots, there is only one reason, that's because they are the subjects of British empire, while in fact, this meaning has beyond the intention of the director. When I watched it over, I found that the main actor(Benjamin Martin, Mel Gibson) turned himself from a loyal subject to be an revolutionary hero. Then I finally realized that it is quite unsuitable for director Roland to name it that way. Anyway, the film is very, very good, and to be honest, I do really enjoy myself when I saw it from the first second.
Then I started my thinking about loyalists, Loyalist ideology and Bailyn's study on Thomas Hutchinson(TH) in 1974. As you may know, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, one of the most important biography on TH since James K. Hosmer's The Life of Thomas Huchinson(1896), which grew out of lectures delivered at New York University in 1969 and Cambridge University in 1971(John Catanzariti). In Bailyn's view, Hutchinson was no paragon of worldly wisdom. He exhibited ideological myopia, an insensitivity to the winds of change that crippled him for the task of maintaining the bonds of empire. Hutchinson suffered from that endemic disease of modernity: he was behind the times. He represented the prudential politics of the Walpolean settlement. Authority, class interest, political manipulation and office-seeking constituted the bases of public order. when faced with the ideological striving of the revolutionaries, the fanatic determination to cleanse the British constitution of corruption, Hutchinson first appealed to reason and then to interest. Finally, Bailyn concludes, "Hutchinson's experience gauges the mix of destructive,transforming, moral and psychic dynamics at work in revolutionary Massachusetts."
Comparing with Bailyn's other work on revolutionary ideology, it seems that this kind of Whiggish historical interpretation is still one-dimensional, which cannot convince me his interpretation on the inner mind of TH, although I appreciate Bailyn's effort very much. Just as I mentioned above, "the patriot" is not a proper title to those loyalists like Martin. That's because, for Martin, he changed his identity as history went on, finally he became a revolutionary and cut down his relationship with the Mother Country. It is easy for us to locate his image and identity, but for TH, he failed to became an revolutionary, and finally was exiled to England and died there, then we can't draw a conclusion that his ideas was behind the historical tide and made a mistake of anachronism as Bailyn pointed out. It seems that there are still other possibilities for us to work on TH's mind.
Bailyn is an excellent scholar, every time when I read his book, I warm myself, he is a smart and talented historian, and I can always learn something from him. As I told you in the last email, I have spent much time in reflecting neo-whig historians and their ideological approach toward history, then I find that my perspective is not the same as them. It seems that the more I learn from them, the more suspicious I am. I don't know whether my feeling or thinking is right or not, but I want to share the pleasure with you.
I know American historians have done a lot research on loyalist ideology, but I want to know, if I can write an article on TH, can I take it as my writing sample? Is it much better than my project on Jefferson-Hemings scandal? Dear Eric, just tell me frankly, I have make good preparations for receiving any advice from you.
By the way, in my mind, professor Wang Xi is a 'real' gentleman, by setting him as an example, I have learned a lot from him, not only for knowledge, but also for his personality. Professor Wang Xi is my 'model,' it is him who encourages me to go on my further education in America.
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