The Radicalism of the American Revolution

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The Radicalism of the American Revolution

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 1,365 ratings · 89 reviews

In a grand and immemsely readable synthesis of historical, political, cultural, and economic analysis, a prize-winning historian depicts much more than a break with England. He gives readers a revolution that transformed an almost feudal society into a democratic one, whose emerging realities sometimes baffled and disappointed its founding fathers.

Paperback, 447 pages

Published March 2nd 1993 by Vintage (first published 1991)

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Jan 18, 2012 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-usa, 1990-1999, non-fiction, history, audiobook, polly-sighs-and-pubic-policy

This Pulitzer Prize-winning analysis of the American Revolution is among the most engaging, most thought-provoking and most erudite history books I’ve ever read. Nothing dry, parched or plodding to be found here. This is history that reads more like literature and will trap your attention into the folds of its narrative flow like sailor falling into Charybdis.

Mr. Wood, together with David McCullough (John Adams)and Barbara Tuchman (The Guns of August), constitute the ruling council on my shelf...more

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Jan 05, 2013 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-history

I gave it five stars just for the breathtaking ambition of the book and the quality of the book's writing. Wood attempts to describe the social order of colonial America, synthesize the intellectual underpinnings of the Revolution and then explain how it turned the previous world upside down. Wood concludes by tracing the changes that he describes into the Jacksonian period in American history. In all honesty, I am going to have to read the book again a few times in order to fully evaluate his a...more

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Oct 23, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good stuff to ponder. Not the last word on the Revolution or anything, but certainly a fascinating collection of social and cultural history from America circa 1750 to 1820 or so. Wood is arguing against a belief that the American Revolution did not involve a "revolutionary upheaval," and thus, did not involve real change. Since the Americans did not experience a reign of terror, or a Napoleonic dictator, Wood argues that it is easy to underestimate the American Revolution. Really, the whole way...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wood's depiction of the American Revolution is incredibly insightful and appealing to anyone interested in American history. He is able to put the Revolution into the context of the time in which it occurred in a respect that brings the era to life with periodic anecdotes from individuals that lived from the time: whether common man, aristocrat or founding father. The thesis of the work is that the revolution that occured here in the U.S. was much more radical than it has been given credit for....more

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Nov 08, 2011 Libyrinths rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wood looks at the cultural and sociological background of Colonial America, through the Revolution and a little beyond. He isn't always good about putting things into their larger context, I assume because he presupposes a reader who can do that for herself. But the information he shares, and the pictures he portrays, are some you may not have found elsewhere.

His thesis is that the American Revolution was indeed radical, but at the moment, because of his book, I'm inclined to think the opposite!...more

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May 26, 2010 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Caveat: While this book is the kind of great history book to tickle a history fan like myself pink, I see it as being too "on subject" to appeal to most general readers. My nutshell review is that it offers a fine three stage analysis of the changes in the American social-political thought process in the years before, during, and after the Revolution. If that sort of thing floats your boat you will love this book. If not, I know very well this one will bore you stiff.

Too bad that last bit, since...more

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Feb 12, 2011 DoctorM rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-and-historiography

An excellent study of social attitudes and political concepts in eighteenth-century British North America and how the American Revolution changed the ways in which Americans thought of hierarchy, patronage, personal dependency, "liberty", and the nature of government.

Wood is excellent on the structures of class and economic ties in a pre-industrial, pre-Marxian world, a world where influence and success depended on personal ties and patronage as much as wealth, a world where politics was still...more

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Feb 04, 2010 Nathan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, politics, aquinas-library

Wood's thesis - that the American Revolution was essentially a cultural and political metanoia - is not actually so controversial as it might seem. He has no problem proving that, and does so thoroughly and consistently. What this book has more trouble with is building towards a useful conclusion after laying the theoretical groundwork; Wood never quite manages to address the question "So what?" after he has answered the question "What happened?" Still, it's interesting to note that, given the l...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Anthony Ragan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: us-history

An excellent social-political history by one of the preeminent historians of the Revolution and Early Republic. Wood's thesis is that the period from 1740 to 1828 (late Colonial to the rise of Jackson) not only was the time of independence from Britain, but also a radical social and political democratization of American society. Rejecting the British model of personal patronage and social status based on birth, the Revolutionary leaders had hoped to create and Enlightenment "Republic of virtue,"...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Harry Steinmetz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am almost done with the book and find if fascinating, but occasionally a bit dull. First, the transition from an monarchial society to a republic to a full democracy is well thought out and documented. The over documentation that is implicit in most history books leads to the occasional dullness. It's not bad, but it doesn't hold you interest like a Tuchman book. With most historians, there seems to be a contest to see who can come up with the most details, rather than just the most significan...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Marc rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is just a great work of political and social history. Wood does a particularly fine job of teasing out the contradictions in various conceptions of "interestedness" and showing how those conceptions--and interestedness in general--dominate the intellectual landscape of the Revolutionary generation and, by extension, how they shaped modern America.

In a nutshell, here's the argument (not that I can do justice to its complexity or the richness of research that supports it): many Founders beli...more This is just a great work of political and social history. Wood does a particularly fine job of teasing out the contradictions in various conceptions of "interestedness" and showing how those conceptions--and interestedness in general--dominate the intellectual landscape of the Revolutionary generation and, by extension, how they shaped modern America.

In a nutshell, here's the argument (not that I can do justice to its complexity or the richness of research that supports it): many Founders believed in the classical version of public servants as disinterested by virtue of their independent means. For example, Jefferson and his crew often tried to place officeholders based on merit (where merit often had as much to do with bloodline as with native ability or achievement), and John Q Adams was so averse to partisanship that he left in place many of Monroe's appointees. But as the country grew, this model became increasingly unsustainable; in a large country with an expanding bureaucracy that possessed democratic pretensions, placed an emphasis on social mobility (for white men), and at least paid lip service to meritocracy, there simply weren't enough of the "right" people to staff things. Which leads directly to Jackson's creation of the spoils system, where successful parties reward their followers with jobs. Paradoxically, because this leads to appointees who are nakedly partisan and often unqualified, the structure of government becomes more professional as a safeguard against excessive interestedness; essentially, this is the genesis of the civil service.

Meanwhile, on the economic side, the growth of publicly-chartered corporations entangles the chartering legislatures in commerce and the market. And one of the key mechanisms to protect the integrity of private transactions and businesses from partisan is the judiciary. Because legislatures are inherently compromised, it's left to courts to mediate business disputes and uphold and interpret contracts, the inviolability of which is codified in the Constitution.

Anyway, this is just a taste of the book. Lots of other great stuff on the role of religion in public life, the origins of American middlebrow taste, and the role and definition of "the people" in the founding era. Just a great read all around.(less)

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Sep 23, 2012 Absurdfarce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-political-history

Worthy of it's lofty reputation, The Radicalism of the American Revolution describes the massive social shifts that accompanied the political changes wrought by the Revolution. A vast array of contemporary accounts are marshalled to describe the rigidly hierarchical society in place before the war, a society built upon localism, patronage and a semi-aristocratic notion of public service as an obligation of lesiured gentlemen. We then watch each of these pillars torn away as populations move west...more Worthy of it's lofty reputation, The Radicalism of the American Revolution describes the massive social shifts that accompanied the political changes wrought by the Revolution. A vast array of contemporary accounts are marshalled to describe the rigidly hierarchical society in place before the war, a society built upon localism, patronage and a semi-aristocratic notion of public service as an obligation of lesiured gentlemen. We then watch each of these pillars torn away as populations move westward, career politicians emerge and American society becomes both more demoratic and less leisured (some might say more coarse). The comments of the Founding Fathers on the society that had emerged in the 1820's (and indeed the general disorder found in that society) are particularly striking, as many were clearly unnerved by the societal changes their actions had wrought. One can sometimes find these comments (generally critical of rampant democracy) in political discussion today; this text makes clear that the speakers were commenting on a very different society (for good or for bad) than what was seen in 1776.

Curiously, the war mentioned in the title seems far removed, an actor off in the distance. There is plenty of analysis and description of the societies before and after the war but little describing how Americans interacted during the Revolution. This fact leads to the central question one might ask Professor Wood: how much of the change he describes is due to the political changes brought on by the Revolution and how much is due to nothing more than a rapidly expanding country outgrowing the governing structures that ruled it's youth? An example: the decline in localism and the increased mobility of populations seem like a fairly natural evolution for a society that was beginning to move westward. Was this change also in some way driven by the conflict, or was it simply the mark of an expanding society?

Overall, though, this is an excellent analysis of the social connective tissue of the era, written in a lively style that never becomes oppressively academic. It doesn't seem outlandish to describe this book as indispensable for anyone interested in the period.(less)

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Oct 31, 2012 Brian Anton rated it 3 of 5 stars

In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, published in 1991, Gordon S. Wood writes about the changes of the social hierarchy before, during, and after the United States’ War for Independence. He uses the intellectual school of thought to explain the motivation for the war by explaining the breakdown of the monarchical and patriarchal structure in colonial America, the development of republican thought, and finally the development of democratic thought. Wood uses many sources to explain and p...more In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, published in 1991, Gordon S. Wood writes about the changes of the social hierarchy before, during, and after the United States’ War for Independence. He uses the intellectual school of thought to explain the motivation for the war by explaining the breakdown of the monarchical and patriarchal structure in colonial America, the development of republican thought, and finally the development of democratic thought. Wood uses many sources to explain and prove his thesis that republicanism was the basis for, and continuing effect of the American Revolution and the United States Constitution. The main question that Wood asks in the book is, how revolutionary was the American Revolution? His answer is that it had a slow but lasting effect in the fact that it broke down old monarchical and paternal tendencies of European cultures at the time of the Revolution based on the idea of Republicanism and equality through personal relationships created before the Revolution took place. In essence, he argues that it was in fact far reaching and a true revolution causing changes that allowed the United States to become the world power that it today.

Wood separated the book into three sections organized chronologically with nineteen chapters organized by topic. The first section titled, “Monarchy” portrays the traditional social hierarchy in the colonies as a close copy of that in England in three different places: the household, the society, and the government. This section explains the relationships between people in each of the three mentioned aspects of society. Based on a system of patriarchy, the household and family structure became dependent on the father as the head of the household as far as adulthood for the family’s children. The same type of hierarchy was attributed to society as those in the elite class held the political power and economic power in the colonies. These men, who held the title of “gentleman,” gained most of their power through inheritance and family standing. In order to earn the title, one could not use labor to make a living. Finally, the government depended on the same social structure as participation was based on social status and those who were “uninterested” or without monetary interest in the government.

In the second section, Wood explains the depletion of the social structure before the Revolution. The society became anti-authoritarian both in respect to the government in England and in the family as discipline became more lax. Social class became less of an issue as those outside of the elite class began to gain political and economic power due to the growth of trade inside of the colonies. The Revolution eventually led to the break from monarchical society and traditional familial relationships.

The third section, “Democracy” explains the continuing change of the three previously named aspects of society including the emergence of a middle class as a political and economic powerhouse. Equality advanced to the point that everybody could participate and be represented in government. Trade inside of the colonies also progressed as it became more important than foreign trade leading to the emergence of paper money changing the economic system and changing the way that people were connected. An economy based on the dollar replaced the one based on the credit of personal relationships.

Reviewers of the books recognize Wood’s work as a significant addition to the study of the late Eighteenth Century and the American Revolution. Two of the three reviews point out that he views the Revolution as a triumph for democracy that had a long-lasting impact. They point out a few weaknesses in his argument though in the fact that he places all Americans in the same group and does not recognize the fact that inequalities were still evident following the Revolution and are still evident today, especially in regard to women and ethnic minorities. They also point out that other countries achieved many of the celebrated accomplishments of America without a Revolution and did much faster such as the end of slavery and women’s suffrage. They also question how the social changes relate to the creation of the new republic following the Revolution. Essentially, reviewers point out the lack of connection between the causes for independence and the causes for social change. One reviewer, Though they point out these weaknesses, they also agree that Wood opened a new view of the field of studying the American Revolution and a new questions for historians to analyze.

In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood is very clear and organized in supporting his thesis. He uses a systematic method of showing the changes that he believes led to the Revolution and continued afterward. The book is very interesting and uses the logical argument that the Revolution was started by the breakdown of societal structure and continued following the war. Although he attempts to use sources to show the breakdown of society, Wood uses few sources from outside of the elite class, probably because of the lack of accessibility to those documents. Most of those sources come from the powerful white males of the period such as Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Jon Jay, Jon Adams, and Benjamin Rush among others. Therefore, Wood uses only those of elite status to portray the entire population of the period. It is difficult to justify using only those elite sources because a portion of his argument should show the viewpoint of those outside of the elite class in order to more effectively prove the thesis that all Americans were in support of the social changes that the Revolution brought with it.

Wood has made a significant contribution to the study of the American Revolution and attempts to prove that it was in fact a product of radical ideology instead of a conservative movement for independence from England alone. He shows that those behind the Revolution were aware of the social ramifications that it should have and that they made an attempt to create a more Republican society and attempted to break down the lines between the classes and create a society where all Americans were members of the class of gentlemen. He uses sufficient support of his thesis to show that there was a depletion of social standards after the Revolution but does not show how that digression directly led to it. In other words, Wood does not address the correlation between the causes for independence and the war and the social changes that he theorizes were the main cause and result of the American Revolution. There is not sufficient proof showing that the digression continued due to the Revolution but only an assumption that the Revolution and Constitution laid the foundation for the republican ideals that progressed afterward.

Overall, the Wood provided for a social history of the American Revolution that was different from others previous to him in that he viewed it as a social revolution more than a simple break from the English monarchy. He outlines the ideas behind the Revolution and the revolutionaries effectively and makes a good argument that there was more behind the American Revolution than simply the want and need to free the colonies from the English abuses that are so well known in other studies of that era.
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Oct 27, 2010 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, 18thcentury, americans

By the time I finished this book, back in October, I was so tired of Wood’s dry Kashi prose—as Matt memorably put it—that to write a review seemed more than I could bear. Recent reading about the Roman legacy and disaffected Russian gentlefolk has, however, recalled Wood to my thoughts. The Radicalism of the American Revolution was written against a notion of the revolution as essentially conservative. It’s easy notion to hold, for us in a multi-racial democracy. One group of white landowners in...more By the time I finished this book, back in October, I was so tired of Wood’s dry Kashi prose—as Matt memorably put it—that to write a review seemed more than I could bear. Recent reading about the Roman legacy and disaffected Russian gentlefolk has, however, recalled Wood to my thoughts. The Radicalism of the American Revolution was written against a notion of the revolution as essentially conservative. It’s easy notion to hold, for us in a multi-racial democracy. One group of white landowners in buckled shoes and knee breeches is as good as another, right? Not quite. Wood argues that though it lacked the usual extravaganzas—“no peasant uprisings, no jacqueries, no burning of chateaux, no storming of prisons”—the American Revolution nonetheless leveled the feudal social structure of colonial America and authorized a society in which labor was dignified instead of disdained—a society in which common (white) people were empowered to participate in politics, hustle unashamedly after wealth, and shout and stamp in whatever denominations they could rig up. Colonial America had been dominated by a monarchial gentry whose members held society together by “intricate networks of personal loyalties, obligations, and quasi-dependencies.” The patriarchs lent money in the absence of banks; fueled local economies in the maintenance of their estates; patronized the educations of the talented but lowly-born; controlled access to royal offices; and generally ruled as aristocracies always had and elsewhere did, from the timorous deference accorded them by artisans, mechanics and small farmers ashamed of their own dirty, calloused hands and awed by the crown connections, Olympian leisure, classical learning and supple manners attributed to their betters.

Most of the Founding Fathers—the “revolutionary generation”—came from the gentry. But from that gentry’s lowest rung; and that is key. (I knew Hamilton was a bastard from the Bahamas—“the bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar,” John Adams snarled—but not that both Adams and Jefferson were the first in their families to attend college and so receive the humane letters “thought necessary for participation in gentlemanly society”; and Washington was never formally exposed to such an education. Adams claimed, again biliously, that Washington couldn’t write six words without misspelling one; and later, he turned down repeated invitations to tour France because he didn’t know any French.) Relative outsiders to the webs of royal patronage, and contemptuous of the fawning and flattery that characterized paternalistic politics, America’s revolutionary gentry, good classically educated gentlemen as they were, countered what Adams called the “Idolatry to Monarchs, and servility to Aristocratical Pride” with a set of austere ideals drawn from their reading about the ancient republics. The revolutionary gentry offered itself as an enlightened patriciate, ruling from pure merit, and modeling, for the masses of the new society, ideals of disinterested civic virtue and a strenuous, self-sacrificial devotion the public good—“invoking these classical ideals,” writes Wood, “became the major means by which dissatisfied Britons on both sides of the Atlantic voiced their objections to the luxury, selfishness, and corruption of the monarchial world in which they lived.”

Wood’s section on classical republicanism as political counterculture was one of my favorites in the book. He writes about how the educated of the day could not hear enough about the severe martial personae of Sparta and Republican Rome. The “maxims of ancient policy,” as Hume called them, formed a curriculum for the would-be statesman. George Washington’s favorite book was Addison’s senatorial drama in blank verse, Cato; and it was in emulation of the Roman general Cincinnatus that the victorious Washington surrendered his supreme sword to the Congress, when the road to a military tyranny lay open and well-trodden. I seriously get dewy-eyed at the idea of backwoods humanism—at Cicero carried in a saddlebag, Tacitus piercing the forests of New World.

Not all our books will perish, nor our statues, if broken, lie unrepaired; other domes and pediments will rise from our domes and pediments... (Memoirs of Hadrian)

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Nov 19, 2012 Onefinemess rated it 2 of 5 stars

It’s hard for me to rate this book, as it was both incredibly difficult/boring to read, yet it also had some really great information and some angles of looking that things that hadn’t occurred to me yet (such as the way the shift from monarchy to republic to democracy played out in the minds of Americans, and the way the founding fathers felt about their work just a few decades later).

It is definitely not an introductory text – this is part of what made it difficult for me – it really presuppos...more

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Feb 19, 2010 Paul Donahue rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great read on the revolution from a completely different angle than I've ever read. Wood doesn't write the book chronologically; there are no story arcs, protagonists, etc. It reads like a textbook and as such can get pretty dry. But textbooks can also be fascinating.

When we think of the American Revolution, we think of a war and a political revolution. We were taught that the French Revolution, even though it happened afterward, was the more monumental event because it was a social and societ...more A great read on the revolution from a completely different angle than I've ever read. Wood doesn't write the book chronologically; there are no story arcs, protagonists, etc. It reads like a textbook and as such can get pretty dry. But textbooks can also be fascinating.

When we think of the American Revolution, we think of a war and a political revolution. We were taught that the French Revolution, even though it happened afterward, was the more monumental event because it was a social and societal revolution, eradicating monarchy and enabling middle class rule. Wood doesn't spend time comparing the revolutions, but his point is clear: ours produced every bit the change as in France.

To fully understand this revolution, Wood says we must consider not just the war of 1775-1783, but the entire time period from about 1740 to 1820. The gentry of the early 1700s mirrored English aristocracy; inheriting their wealth, owning land, serving as judges and legislators, independent. Labor was an act of poverty, and anyone who could not live on their inherited wealth was a member of the mob, unsophisticated and dependent upon the gentry both socially and politically. Commerce was limited to trade with Europe. As much as 40-50% of all men were slaves or servants.

By 1820, all this had changed. Wealth in the colonies was not enough to allow anyone to live the life of a true, leisurely aristocrat, which created dependencies. Leisure itself became a vice and labor a virtue--the exact opposite of colonial America. The realization of the benefits of interstate commerce launched the US into the commercial, market-centric society we know today. And that firm line (huge gap) between commoners and gentry was obliterated. Everyone was now a gentleman, everyone was free to pursue happiness in their own way, no one had to be dependent on anyone else if they worked hard enough. Except slaves. But eliminating the hierarchy and dependency of colonial society gave oxygen to the emancipation movement where before there was none. The revolution made it possible to begin the debate on freeing slaves, and that alone is an underappreciated and radical consequence.

The most jarring message of the book was how disappointed the revolutionaries were with what they had created. They thought republicanism would lead to a more enlightened society, where each man would use his new freedom to become more informed and more sophisticated. Disinterested, liberally educated men would serve in the government, above private interests and all for the common good. Some of them were mortified to see what then occurred. By 1820 it was considered virtuous by many to have no college education. Common mechanics, artisans, and merchants, with no knowledge of government or the political philosophy of Cato and Cicero were being elected to legislatures. By the time Andrew Jackson, a crude, violent Tennessee farmer, was elected President, Jefferson was disheartened and disillusioned with his own Revolution, and even "reduced to despair." (less)

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Nov 07, 2008 Larry rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: every American

Recommended to Larry by: New York Review of Books

Professor Wood is an emminant historian and has written an insightful work demonstrating that not only was the American Revolution a world political pardigm shift but that the subsequesnt invention of an all new republican democratic society was in itself an even greater and more radical change in society. The post-war destruction of the patronage systems and the then existing aristocracy, coupled with the advent of the personal work ethic and unquenchable desire to improve one's economic positi...more

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Apr 26, 2008 Craig rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those with a strong interest in the role of history on America today.

Shelves: history, politics

This book does a really good job explaining the dramatic cultural changes prmopted by the American revolution. I came away from this read persuaded by the writer's thesis.

The writer argues that the revolution wasn't strictly a change to the self-rule of democratic government but also a transformation of society. The argument goes that society was composed largely into cultural elites with high manners, learning, and property, and a laboring mass with little learning, a meanness of character, and...more

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Aug 01, 2007 Xio rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historysociologyetc

From Library Journal

Historians have always had problems explaining the revolutionary character of the American Revolution: its lack of class conflict, a reign of terror, and indiscriminate violence make it seem positively sedate. In this beautifully written and persuasively argued book, one of the most noted of U.S. historians restores the radicalism to what he terms "one of the greatest revolutions the world has ever known." It was the American Revolution, Wood argues, that unleashed the social...more

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Nov 01, 2010 Caitlin rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't care what you say in the introduction, Gordon Wood, but not addressing the agency of women and non-whites in the American Revolution leaves your book underwhelming and incomplete. Plus, you drag in republican motherhood at the end, and don't even explain how that developed. Geeze, dude, either flesh it out or don't bring it up at all.

Also, I think he makes a lot of generalizations about deference, democracy, and capitalism, and then says something like "except, of course, in the South" o...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Americans' interpretation of their Revolution could never cease; it was integral to the very existence of the nation. Some found the meaning of the Revolution in the Constitution and the union it had created. Others discovered the meaning in the freedom and equality that the Revolution had produced. But many other Americans knew that such meanings were too formal, too legal, too abstract, to express what most actually experienced in being Americans. In concrete day-to-day terms, invocations of...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Mark Feltskog rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: professional-development

When I reach for superlatives to characterize this magisterial book, my cup simply runneth over. Gordon S. Wood, by now, is a--if not the--major figure in Colonial and Early United States historiography, and this book, while perhaps not his magnum opus (he has recently published a major study titled Empire of Liberty, and surely has more books and articles to produce), it is perhaps the final word on the ideology and social philosophy of those who fomented the American Revolution. Casual readers...more

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Nov 28, 2008 Toby is currently reading it

This book will blow your mind. It's all about the ideological origins of the United States. It really does a good job of combatting presentism. Almost every ideological development at the American Revolution is relevant today. This book concretely illustrates some of the unique paths of white supremacy and capitalism in the United States. That may not be what Gordon Wood intended, but read it for that and you won't be disappointed. This stuff is deep and deeply relevant.

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Jul 25, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Certainly an excellent work, and essential reading for a colonial americanist. However, it is not a work without flaws. For a view of the scholarly debate, read the transcript of the Forum "How revolutionary was the Revolution? A Discussion of Gordon S. Wood's The Radicalism of the American Revolution" in the William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., Vol. 51, no 4 (Oct., 1994) pp. 677-716. Historians debating are McGiffert, Appleby, Clark-Smith, Zuckerman, and a rebuttle by Wood.

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Aug 09, 2012 Ray Stafford rated it 2 of 5 stars

it was an ok read. my only problem was with the argument that the author was trying to make. the ideas that lead to the american were not revolutionary or radical per say. the philosophies on which they based their resolution to revolt were all broadly accepted, mostly taken from John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. the revolution was the result of generations of political thought, much of it British. the ideas that the Americans advanced were not new or revolutionary

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Aug 03, 2011 Gail Hoskins added it

Wood makes the point that the founders were influenced by classical Roman and Enlightenment thinking. They wanted a society were an elite (not by virtue of the family that you were born into, but by your own merit) would run the government in a disinterested manner for the good of all. They never imagined the party politics and consumer society that they helped to create and didn't like what they saw starting to happen in their lifetimes.

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Apr 19, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a pretty good book but I did get kind of bored by the end. It is almost like a quick summary of our founding fathers from George Washington to John Adams to Aaron Burr. Each founding father gets his own little chapter which makes it easier to read and understand.

Gordon S. Wood is a great writer and historian, and he did do some great research for this book but I was not as impressed with it. I expected more.

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Aug 21, 2010 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

Another book that earns its Pulitzer Prize and then some. I made the mistake of starting this book while in law school, so I ended up reading it off and on over a period of years. Part of why this book took so much time to read is that it is an unbelievably dense tome that requires long stretches of unwavering attention. Dr. Wood covers an enormous amount of material without ever letting it up, yet the book coalesces into a brilliant narrative. While the long stretch of time between starting and...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Logan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: political-books, history-books

Though I thought Wood was sometimes too kind to American institutions, in a way over-lauding them, I did think that the book shed some interesting social context to the American Revolution. Essentially, Wood was able to highlight the radical differences between American society prior to and following the Revolution, in order to demonstrate the often overlooked and somewhat surprising radicalism of the American Revolution.

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May 16, 2010 Mike F rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good history of the American Revolution and the social changes it brought. NOT a military history, but a look at three stages in the evolution of american society: pre-Revolution when still part of Brit Empire, the vision and behavior of the founders, and finally the popular democracy that the founders did not really envision. Classic primer on American Rev; won Pulitzer

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