On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 kelley at pulpculture.org wrote:
> That and, wasn't it E.P. Thompson's argument: feudalism handed down
> centuries of rebellious tradition. when the landlords got out of
> hand--too greedy--peasants felt it their right to protest and demand
> their due.
Yes, but Thompson wasn't using it in comparative perspective to point to something the US lacked, and I don't think it was something we did lack. It might have had a different basis (perhaps our injurable pride as equals) but the US wasn't short of rebelliousness. Charles Tilly said once that one that thing always amazed him was that in the formative years between the 1880s and the 1930s, America's strikes were the most violent in the industrial world -- and yet it ended up in the end with the least labor presence in politics.
Michael