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Title: The American Revolution: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) by GORDON S. WOOD ISBN: 0-679-64057-6 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 22 January, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A nice, brief introduction to the topic
Comment: This 166-page book introduces us to the American Revolution, with an emphasis on its causes and effects--economic, political, legal, social, racial, and religious. The writing style is a bit too factual and dry for me, perhaps because Wood is just briefly covering the topic, but I would have liked to see more details on the leaders and events to "bring them to life." For example, Wood writes that "it was mob violence that destroyed the Stamp Act in America," but there is little given us about the violent acts themselves, and the people who instigated them. Also, few details are presented about the battles of the Revolutionary War. (Read A. J. Langguth's Patriots to learn more about Samuel Adams, George Washington and others, as well as about most of the military campaigns.)
Wood's book is particularly useful for its discussion of the effects of the war: on the class structure, slaves, indentured servants and the Indians, monetary inflation, education, governments, and on the role of women. Wood summarizes some surprising trends: For example, he points out that wealth was distributed more unequally after the Revolution even though Americans believed that society was more egalitarian. He also gives us some fascinating details, such as that some women objected to the use of the word "obey" in the vows taken at their weddings in the last quarter of the 18th century.
This is a good overview of the American Revolution, although it is not written in the most exciting style. In addition, there is a good list of other sources of information, with comments about them at the end of the book.
Rating: 4
Summary: pretty darn good for its size
Comment: Wood has managed to capture the key events and personalities surrounding the causes, conduct and after-effects of the American Revolution in a succinct manner.
What I found most interesting was the specific details one does not frequent across except in upper-division history classes or scholarly articles. For example the settlement patterns and growing populations on the "frontier" (Appalachia and the Ohio river valley in the 1760's) and the role this played in the growing scism between the Americas and Britain. The importance and legacy of the Northwest Ordinances in the settlement and"opening" of the continent. The British conduct of the war and the specific challenges they faced in fighting Washington (and Arnold and Gates).
For its berevity, it is a remarkably dense and readable book.
Rating: 3
Summary: America's Revolution of the Mind: 1763-1787
Comment: What was the American Revolution? While most people would probably identify the American Revolution with the American War of Independence, Gordon S. Wood sees it as something more: a complete change in the ideological and political structure of British America, from the Royal colonies of 1763 to the Unites States of 1787. Within a single generation, America twice revised its views about the government and sovereignty.
Wood does not disregard the material causes for independence, the interest groups and the petty local politics that fed fuel to the conflict between the colonies and the mother country, but his focus is on the ideological and philosophical issues - the British, who saw Parliament as the source of authority to all of the British Empire, whether the constituents voted for the MPs or not, and the Americans, who held to the principle of "no taxation without representation", and the ideology that contrasted liberty and self rule with the tyrannical power of the divine rights of kings.
With the deepening, crisis, the Colonists, although willing in principle to acknowledge that Parliament had the right to regulate external commerce and navigation laws "from the necessities of the case, and a regard to the mutual interests of both countries" (p.44), could no longer reconcile that view with the British all-or-nothing perspective, in which sovereignty lay within Parliament and Parliament alone. The widespread violence and King George III's declaration that the colonies were in open revolt helped push the Americans into declaring their independence.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the Founding Fathers of the United States formed an alternative form of government to the Imperial system - no longer a centre and a periphery, but a collective of equal, cooperating states. With the Northwest Ordinance, the Americans acknowledged the Western settlers as the equals of the thirteen original colonies. Proportionally representative legislative councils were seen as the instrument of government, the protection against executive tyranny.
The failure of the all-powerful legislatives to adequately answer the needs of the public good, and the lack of cooperation between the states, led to another change in the American political philosophy. Local legislative councils changed from being the ultimate expression of Public sovereignty, to one element in a complex national system, meant to keep checks and balances between the states and the Federal Union, and between the branches of government. The ultimate purpose was to keep sovereignty in the hands of "we, the people of the United States of America"
There is far more in Wood's book then I can do justice to in a short review. But Wood's detailed investigation of the political and ideological aspects of the revolution means that much remains neglected. The social changes of America are hardly more then alluded to, and the economic changes are never coherently explained. The worst neglect, though, is the Military history aspects of the Revolution - the American War of Independence is dealt with almost entirely in about 6 pages. Nor are the major personalities of the Revolution given due attention: Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Henry and Washington are mentioned but only in the context of their ideas or public actions. There is only a single exception - Wood's short discussion of Washington's choice to re-enter political life and participate in the 1787 Philadelphia Convention.
In the past couple of years, I've tried to read three different accounts of the American Revolution, and have been unable to finish any of them. Gordon S. Wood's short book is a fascinating read and a good introduction to the Revolution and to the changes it brought on America.
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Title: The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood ISBN: 0679736883 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 02 March, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn ISBN: 0674443020 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: March, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.50 |
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Title: The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 (The Chicago History of American Civilization) by Edmund Sears Morgan, Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0226537579 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: February, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Communism : A History by Richard Pipes ISBN: 0679640509 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and culture, Williamsburg, Virginia) by Gordon S. Wood, Institute of Early American History and ISBN: 0807847232 Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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