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The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actionsso complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent events coveringa number of years, a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities asthe expression of one intellectual or social movement; yet the historicalprocess which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to the presidencycan be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new wayof life but of nationalism as a new way of life. The American Revolutionrepresents the link between the seventeenth century, in whichmodern England became conscious of itself, and the awakening of modernEurope at the end of the eighteenth century. It may seem strange that themarch of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only inthe North American colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead also to thefoundation of a new nation. Here, in thepopular rising against a tyrannical government, the fruits weremore than the securing of a freer constitution. They included the growthof a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots ofcommon descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or dynasty. Withthe American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world. 全文翻译：美国革命的历史意义 历史的进程是如此错综复杂，人类行为的动机是如此令人费解，以至于想把那些时间跨度大，涉及人数多，空间范围广的事件描述成为一个智者或一场社会运动的表现的企图是危 险的。 然而以托马斯杰弗逊登上总统宝座为高潮的那一段历史过程可以被视为一个特殊 的例子。 | 
