The Radicalism of the American Revolution

by Gordon S. Wood

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679404937
• ISBN13: 9780679404934
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 447 Pages
• Weight: 1.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A Stunning Analysis of the Intellectual Underpinnings of the American Revolution

I first read the work of Gordon Wood in graduate school a quarter century ago, especially his magnificent and massive 1972 book, "The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787." This study, "The Radicalism of the American Revolution," is essentially a continuation of that earlier work, probing the intellectual underpinnings of the era. It, too, is a magnificent work and fully deserving of the Pulitzer Prize that it received. While covering some of the same ground as Bernard Bailyn's "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" (Harvard University Press, 1967), this book develops a more detailed, rigorous, and compelling portrait of a society transforming itself from one of feudal relationships to one predicated on republicanism, democracy, and market-driven capitalism. At a fundamental level, Wood argues, the American Revolution was truly a radical episode in world history. He comments that "The republican revolution was the greatest utopian movement in American history. The revolutionaries aimed at nothing less than a reconstitution of American society. They hoped to destroy the bonds holding together the older monarchical society--kinship, patriarchy, and patronage--and to put in their place new social bonds of love, respect, and consent. They sought to construct a society and governments based on virtue and disinterested public leadership and to set in motion a moral government that would eventually be felt around the globe" (p. 229). They advocated ensuring equality as the first task of society; Wood calls this "the single most powerful and radical ideological force in all of American history" (p. 234). And all Americans, he argues, embraced the idea of equality as manifested in labor and accomplishment. He notes, "Perhaps nothing separated early-nineteenth-century Americans more from Europeans than their attitude toward labor and their egalitarian sense that everyone must participate in it" (p. 286). Wood closes "The Radicalism of the American Revolution" with this, "No doubt the cost that America paid for this democracy was high--with its vulgarity, its materialism, its rootlessness, its anti-intellectualism. But there is no denying the wonder of it and the real earthly benefits it brought to the hitherto neglected and despised masses of common laboring people. The American Revolution created this democracy, and we are living with its consequences still" (p. 269). Above all, Wood argues that ideas and ideological issues matter in the context of American history. Self-interest is very real, but ideas and ideals serve as powerful motivations for actions. This is a stunningly significant book that must be read by all who seek to understand the origins of the United States.

Compellng, Conversational Antithesis to Pauline Maier

Gordon S. Wood argues the American Revolution transformed American society more than any other event in history. Conceding that the American Revolution was not as bloody as the French, Russian, or Chinese Revolutions, it did, in fact serve as the model for those that came later. Wood argues the American Revolution was not a conservative movement as is often the popular consensus among historians. Wood's concentration is centered squarely on social change. "By the time the Revolution had run its course [writes Wood] in the early nineteenth century, American society had been radically and thoroughly transformed." "By the early years of the nineteenth century the Revolution had created a society fundamentally different from the colonial society of the eighteenth century. It was in fact a new society unlike any that had ever existed anywhere in the world." How, in Wood's view, did this social transformation occur? Wood illustrates that the transformation of early American society occurred in three distinct phrases that he later called "three cultural paradigms or ideal types." American society, argues Wood, underwent a political shift from a Monarchy, to a republic, to a democracy. These three shifts represent the outline of the book. Wood emphasizes, however, that these three phrases did not transpire in neat blocks of black and white. There were, in fact, many gray areas. Not all elements of American society felt the impact of this transformation at once. Wood's study continues some forty years after the Revolution into the early nineteenth century to illustrate the full social, political, economic, and religious change in American society. Somewhat contradicting to his timeframe, however, Wood states: "Far from remaining monarchical, hierarchy-ridden subjects on the margin of civilization, Americans had become, almost over-night the most liberal, the most democratic, the most commercially minded, and the most modern people in the world...."It was the Revolution, more than any other single event, that made America into the most liberal, democratic, and modern nation in the world." This then is the essence of Wood's study. Wood goes on to explain in intricate detail this amazing conversion to democracy. Incorporating varying methodologies of the social sciences, Wood shows how the social hierarchy and class distinctions of the American aristocracy, or landed gentry began to wither away after the Revolution under the auspices of a new egalitarian society. The masses could now own land, and run for public office. Paper money, debt, and other aspects of a modern economy as we know it today were established in the years following the American Revolution. Wood devotes a detailed discussion on the renovation of American labor. Diversity is another theme expressed by Wood, particularly in reference to religion in America. Aside from elements of the social sciences, Wood incorporates a philosophic approach as well, discussing such themes as modernity, equal

A Prudent Revolution

Gordon Wood covers much the same ground as did Bernard Bailyn did in "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution," but charts it in a more linear fashion. Wood illustrates how the American colonies emerged from a monarchical system into a Republic, and eventually into a Democratic society. The focus is on representation, beginning with the colonial assemblies. The American colonies had a legacy of representative institutions, which helped in forming the necessary consensus in order to achieve independence. Throughout its revolutionary history, Americans felt they had a moral imperative for self-determination, dramatized by such events as the Boston Tea Party. The colonies took great pride in their assemblies, and in many ways felt they were the ultimate authority. If the Americans were anwerable to anyone it was the King, not the parliament, which increasingly exercised more control over the colonies, especially in the form of taxes to pay for the various services it provided the colonies, such as protection. Wood notes how agents, such as Benjamin Franklin, petitioned for the rights of the colonies in the parliament. When these petitions were no longer heard, the colonies chose to rebel.What is intriguing about Wood's analysis, is the reluctance many Americans had about making a complete breach from England. Americans realized that their institutions were an outgrowth of English Republican ideas. It was a slow, evolving revolution, carrying these principles to their fullest realization. Never short of praise for themselves, the Americans thought they had succeeded where the British had failed in creating a truly representative government.Wood offers an especially fine analysis of the events which shaped the American Revolution, and how it was a natural outgrowth of an increasingly dynamic society. The book is copiously annotated and well indexed. It is a book that you will refer to again and again.