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The Radicalism of the American Revolution

Pulitzer Prize Winner

Author Gordon S. Wood
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Paperback
$21.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Mar 02, 1993 | 464 Pages | 9780679736882
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

This major work of historical, cultural, social, and political analysis overturns long-held theories about the nature and the effects of the American Revolution. Wood shows that it was not a conservative movement, a defense of American rights against British encroachments that was undertaken merely to preserve rather than change the existing structures of society. To the contrary, it is his thesis, based on an assessment of the changes that actually took place in the way people were socially and economically connected to one another, that the American Revolution was as radical as any revolution in modern history, and produced a society that was free and democratic far beyond anything thought either possible or desirable by the founding fathers. To make clear just how radically the Revolution transformed American society and culture, Wood provides a thoroughly detailed picture of the old colonial, monarchical society, outlining its vertical and horizontal divisions, patriarchal dependence, and patronage networks. He describes the democratic structures already implicit in colonial life that were brought to the surface by the Revolution, and shows how the revolutionaries of 1776 sought to replace the power of kinship and influence with that of merit and natural sociability.

“The most important study of the American Revolution to appear in over twenty years...a landmark book.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A breathtaking social, political, and ideological analysis. This book will set the agenda for discussion for some time to come.” —Richard L. Bushman
I. Monarchy

1. Hierarchy
2. Patricians and Plebeians
3. Patriarchal Dependence
4. Patronage
5. Political Authority

II. Republicanism

6. The Republicanization of Monarchy
7. A Truncated Society
8. Loosening the Bands of Society
9. Enlightened Paternalism
10. Revolution
11. Enlightenment
12. Benevolence

III. Democracy

13. Equality
14. Interests
15. The Assault on Aristocracy
16. Democratic Officeholding
17. A World Within Themselves
18. The Celebration of Commerce
19. Middle-Class Order
  • WINNER | 1993
    Pulitzer Prize
  • WINNER | 1992
    Phi Beta Kappa Ralph Waldo Emerson Award
Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and professor of history 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. Wood’s 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 American History Book Prize. In 2010, Wood was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Obama. He contributes regularly to the New Republic and the New York Review of Books. View titles by Gordon S. Wood

About

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

This major work of historical, cultural, social, and political analysis overturns long-held theories about the nature and the effects of the American Revolution. Wood shows that it was not a conservative movement, a defense of American rights against British encroachments that was undertaken merely to preserve rather than change the existing structures of society. To the contrary, it is his thesis, based on an assessment of the changes that actually took place in the way people were socially and economically connected to one another, that the American Revolution was as radical as any revolution in modern history, and produced a society that was free and democratic far beyond anything thought either possible or desirable by the founding fathers. To make clear just how radically the Revolution transformed American society and culture, Wood provides a thoroughly detailed picture of the old colonial, monarchical society, outlining its vertical and horizontal divisions, patriarchal dependence, and patronage networks. He describes the democratic structures already implicit in colonial life that were brought to the surface by the Revolution, and shows how the revolutionaries of 1776 sought to replace the power of kinship and influence with that of merit and natural sociability.

“The most important study of the American Revolution to appear in over twenty years...a landmark book.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A breathtaking social, political, and ideological analysis. This book will set the agenda for discussion for some time to come.” —Richard L. Bushman

Table of Contents

I. Monarchy

1. Hierarchy
2. Patricians and Plebeians
3. Patriarchal Dependence
4. Patronage
5. Political Authority

II. Republicanism

6. The Republicanization of Monarchy
7. A Truncated Society
8. Loosening the Bands of Society
9. Enlightened Paternalism
10. Revolution
11. Enlightenment
12. Benevolence

III. Democracy

13. Equality
14. Interests
15. The Assault on Aristocracy
16. Democratic Officeholding
17. A World Within Themselves
18. The Celebration of Commerce
19. Middle-Class Order

Awards

  • WINNER | 1993
    Pulitzer Prize
  • WINNER | 1992
    Phi Beta Kappa Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

Author

Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and professor of history 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. Wood’s 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 American History Book Prize. In 2010, Wood was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Obama. He contributes regularly to the New Republic and the New York Review of Books. View titles by Gordon S. Wood

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