The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. WoodMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This wasn’t quite what I was expecting – and all the better for that. I figured this would be more or less a blow-by-blow of the history of the revolution. But this far more than that: Wood is far more interested here in tracing the social, cultural, philosophical, and religious changes from the colonial era through the revolution into the early 19th century.
The overarching changes are from a monarchial, hierarchical society to the classical republican vision of the founders’ era that retained aristocratic elements but grounded these in liberty and virtue and ending with the broader democratic and egalitarian vision of the post-revolutionary period. The revolution, as Woods shows us, was not merely political; not merely a break between England ad the colonies over taxes; it ran far deeper into a rejection of the monarchial, hierarchical society of England (and Europe) – and this cultural break is what leads to need for the political break in 1776.
Woods also details the economic and commercial changes that paralleled but also both a result of and a driver of these social and cultural changes. The flattening of society was part of what allowed people to seek out entrepreneurial opportunities and the wealth created by these success of these opportunities lead to more flattening.
There is less (than I would I like) on the philosophical shifts from the enlightenment philosophy that influenced the founders to the post-enlightenment/romantic ideals that help shape the post-revolutionary period of the early 19th century. The strain of anti-intellectualism that took root continues to this day.
The disillusionment of the founding generation in the success of the revolution is surprising: both in terms of the disillusion itself, but also that much of the disillusionment comes from the success, not the failure of the revolution. That is, that the liberty, pursuit of happiness, and equality they fought for succeeded so well, that it even came for their classical republican aristocratic notions that the founders thought was needed to ground that liberty. They saw this, as Woods tells it, as portending the downfall of the republic. Fortunately, they seem to have been wrong (or a few centuries too early).
View all my reviews
