The debate over the American Revolution’s links to the present is scarcely new, but Jonathan Turley contributes to it by focusing on whether, “like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children”: a remark made by Jacques Mallet du Pan in 1793 with reference to the violence of the French Revolution.
Educated Americans in 1775–83 could look back to the classics and see how those who overthrew Julius Caesar all perished. Familiar, as they would be, with the history of Britain, they would have noted the falling out of those who rebelled against Charles I, not least with the Second Civil War of 1648 and with Cromwell’s overthrowing Parliament in 1653.
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