Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor Emeritus at Brown University. His 1969 book, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, received the Bancroft and John H. Dunning prizes and was nominated for the National Book Award. His 1992 book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, won the Pulitzer Prize and the Emerson Prize. His 2009 book, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, won the New-York Historical Society Prize in American History. In 2011 Wood was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Obama. Wood contributes regularly to the New Republic and the New York Review of Books.
"Gordon S. Wood is more than an American historian. He is almost an
American institution. Of all the many teachers and writers of
history in this Republic, few are held in such high esteem…The
strength of Wood’s scholarship derives from qualities of caution,
balance and restraint that are uniquely his own." — David Hackett
Fischer, New York Times Book Review
"Mr. Wood is our premier student of the Founding Era. He has been
writing history for about a half-century, roughly a fifth of the
days since the origin of the republic. He has scrupulously avoided
appropriating his subject for modern-day political purposes and
instead tried to understand it on its own terms and as a whole.
Historians will of course bring to their study certain questions
and concerns of their own time—no one can or should avoid this—but
the greatest historians are those, like Mr. Wood, who do not make
our criteria of importance the main theme. …It is Mr. Wood's most
‘personal’ work, providing us, along with much fine history,
glimpses into the thinker and the man." — The Wall Street
Journal
"Exceptional…This is a remarkable study of the key chapter of
American history and its ongoing influence on American character."
— Publishers Weekly
"Wood…has long been recognized as one of the preeminent historians
of the era of the American Revolution. In this series of cogent,
beautifully written essays, Wood repeats some of his familiar
themes, but they are well worth revisiting." — Booklist
"[The Idea of America] represent[s] the incredible range of this
eminent scholar’s contributions to the historiography of the
Revolutionary era… Intellectually expansive and elegantly woven,
Wood’s writings are the closest thing we have to an elegant
mediation between today’s readers and the founding generation.
Required reading for Revolutionary War enthusiasts on all levels."
— Library Journal
"A Pulitzer and Bancroft Prize-winning historian offers deeply
contemplative essays from a career devoted to studying the
Revolutionary Era. … It’s difficult to conjure another writer so at
home in the period, so prepared to translate its brilliant
strangeness for a modern audience. Sound, agenda-free analysis,
gracefully presented." — Kirkus Reviews
"Nuanced, elegant essays…it’s hard to imagine a historian better
trained to write on this subject" — American Heritage
"Wood’s lucid writing style and ability to take complex ideas and
spell them out for the layman allows him to detail the fascinating
story of how the emphasis of historians treating the Revolution has
shifted over time." — The Providence Journal
"His purpose is nothing less than to make sense of the United
States and its place in the world...an intellectual autobiography
of the most distinguished and influential early American historian
of his generation." — The Washington Independent Review of
Books
"[The Idea of America] give[s] broad insight into some of the most
important moments in American history." — The Daily
"The insightful essays explore the ideological origins of the
Revolution and the founders’ attempts at forging an American
democracy, and they provide food for thought on whether America has
become the country our founders hoped it would be." — Celebrated
Living
"Wood, one of our most eminent historians, has devoted his long
career to illuminating how American government evolved and how the
events of that period continue to define government and politics
today-often in reliving the controversies that divided thinkers and
politicians then." — Louisville Courier-Journal
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