What contradictory impulses affect the understanding of the 20th century?

Two contradictory impulses affect the understanding of the 20th century. One impulse highlights the century continuities. The other one is that some observers signify a modern culture that highlights fast and important change and the formation of very influential global contacts.  

religion played a major role in the american revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the british--an assurance to the average american that revolution was justified in the sight of god. the revolution strengthened millennialist strains in american.

for this case we have the following equation:

we apply distributive property to the terms within parentheses.

subtracting 2 on both sides of the equation: