The historical rhetoric, mythic heroes, and values of the American Revolution have become the justification for many other contemporary "revolutions." Collective movements advocating states' independence, the abolition of slavery, women's rights, civil rights, and so on, have manipulated the concept of heroic equality as it is embodied in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other Revolutionary documents to conform to their own ideologies and self-interests. Thus, American values become part of an ongoing revolution in which old ideals are translated into new political attitudes and trends. (KS)