ConclusionsIt is when one examines the period in which the
progressive historians wrote that the most sense is made of
their work. Historiography is nought if it is not a reflection
of the times that spawned it. Just as the Progressives were
involved in a movement to improve the lot of the common man in a
time of technological change, so did the progressive historians
see the fighters of the Revolution as fighters for the lot of
the common man. And in just the same way, as the new country was
first forging its nationalistic unity, did George Bancroft see
the war as a virtuous, nationalistic struggle. And likewise did
Charles Beard, the erstwhile firebrand, see the Constitution in
a different light in 1944, when democratic governments were only
just beginning to win the first round in a deadly fight for
their lives, than he did in 1913, the last year in which
Civilization was spelled with a capital "C." Could Beard have
seen the war and its resulting constitution in any other light
than the light in which the