Representation in the American Revolution

by Gordon S. Wood

From one of America’s most celebrated historians, the Pulitzer Prize winner Gordon S. Wood, comes an early work whose relevance is undiminished. Originally published in 1969, now revised and with a new preface, Representation in the American Revolution examines the ways in which a government is created and how, in the face of great difficulties as well as great possibilities, its citizens are represented. Written immediately after the completion of Wood’s Bancroft Award-winning The Creation of the American Republic, this book elaborates on issues also explored in that landmark work. The subject is one that lies at the heart of any discussion of democracy. Establishing a proper method of representation was a goal and measure of the American Revolution, or as Thomas Jefferson said in 1776, "the whole object of the present controversy." A fine example of political and constitutional history, this timeless little book will serve as an excellent introduction to issues of representation for students in the fields of political science, as well as history and law.

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Gordon Stewart Wood, Ph.D. (History, Harvard University, 1964; M.A., History, Harvard U.; B.A., Tuffts University, 1955), was an American historian and academic who was Professor of History at Brown University. Previously he taught at Harvard University, University of Michigan, and the College of William and Mary, and was Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University, 1982–83.

He was a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992). The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (1969) won the 1970 Bancroft Prize. In 2010, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.