Politicization In The American Revolution Summary

“The Limits of Politicization in the American Revolution: The Experience of Westchester County, New York” analytical essay by Sung Bok Kim begins by highlighting and bringing attention to the issue of historians who glorify the positive aftermaths of war, instead of focusing on the disparaging and damaging effects of it. Kim claims that the “sociology of war” has become “a one-sided story” and he uses the example of the conflicts and battles in Westchester County, New York to illustrate the tragedy of war and its negative consequences.
Westchester’s population mainly comprised of apathetic farmers who immersed themselves in their daily lives engaging in agricultural work, that they possessed no political or educational interest. The people
At the same time, some even politically converted after they had undergone conflict with the other side and some males were rendered with no other option than to join the army as they had no other means of survival. In all cases, the people did not have many choices and they had to simply survive the war experience and accept the fact that they no longer remained in control of their own lives. Whether the people held their stances of neutrality or if they remained repelled by politics, they were still forced to live under war’s calamitous conditions. The Whigs and other political parties hoped to politicize the people, but in reality the brutality of the war left them depoliticized and lessened the patriotic feelings that they possessed before. The lives of Westchester’s ordinary people had been changed forever due to the war as they now became self-interested, not engaging in any public causes. The county no longer even resembled to how it look before, stripped of all its scenery and beauty and the people could not simply resume to how their economical and family lives had been before after being exposed to so much