The American Revolution was revolutionary. That's the deceptively simple claim to which Gordon Wood, the historian who was tragically killed at the age of 92 on Sunday, devoted his career. The Revolution, of course, overthrew a monarchy'but the freedoms it advanced were unequally enjoyed, and the Founders left a great deal undone. But Wood insisted that, even so, we not lose sight of its fundamental character. 'The revolution did more than legally create the United States; it transformed society,' Wood wrote in his 1991 book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History. 'Americans,' he argued, 'had become, almost overnight, the most liberal, the most democratic, the most commercially minded, and the most modern people in the world.' By 2011, in The Idea of America, he had expanded his claim: The Revolution 'was an event that opened up a new era in politics and society, not just for Americans but eventually for everyone in the world.' Wood's...
learn more
