by GORDON S. WOOD



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The gifted Wood offers a fresh take on the formative years of the United
States, explaining the astonishing transformation of disparate, quarreling
colonies into a bustling, unruly republic of egalitarian-minded citizens.


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 forces that transformed
American society in the years between 1760 and 1820. The change from a
deferential, monarchical, ordered, and static society to a liberal,
democratic, and commercial one was astonishing, all the more so because it
took place without industrialization, urbanization, or the revolution in
transportation. It was a revolution of the mind, in which the concept of
equality, democracy, and private interest grasped by hundreds of thousands
of Americans transformed a country nearly overnight. Exciting, compelling,
and sure to provoke controversy, the book will be discussed for years to
come. History Book Club main selection.
- David B. Mattern, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville


Product Details

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (March 2, 1993)
ISBN: 0679736883