Grand in scope, rigorous in its arguments, and elegantly synthesizing 30 years of scholarship, Gordon S. Wood's Pulitzer Prize–winning book analyzes the social, political, and economic consequences of 1776. In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood depicts not just a break with England, but the rejection of an entire way of life: of a society with feudal dependencies, a politics of patronage, and a world view in which people were divided between the nobility and "the Herd." He shows how the theories of the country's founders became realities that sometimes baffled and disappointed them. Above all, Bancroft Prize–winning historian Wood rescues the revolution from abstraction, allowing readers to see it with a true sense of its drama---and not a little awe.
©1993 Gordon S. Wood (P)2011 Tantor
"The most important study of the American Revolution to appear in over twenty years...a landmark book." (Pauline Maier, The New York Times Book Review)
"A unique and relevant look at the founding"
It is easy to see how this book is relevant to understanding America today - society, politics and government.
Wood doesn't quite say it this way, but his basic argument is this: the founding generation were trying to create a new society, but they failed to create the one they envisioned. Instead, the society they created turned out better - from the perspective of modern Americans - because it is more democratic than they imagined any place ever could be.
tchrneale
"The matter of class"
This account of the revolution is fascinating for its focus on issues of class which were, on the one hand, much less distinct than those of England, and yet more distinct than we would recognize. It is a useful perspective for me as a history teacher.
I prefer readers who don't call attention to themselves in the reading. This fits the bill
"Interesting book, boring audio!"
So weird, this reader is actually pretty good in the fiction he reads. Perhaps his boredom with history accounts for how bad the reading is. Blech.
High school history and psychology teacher currently working on a scholarly article on 13th-century Franciscan theologian Guibert of Tournai
"Regurgitating Gordon Wood"
Seminal social history
I think my head would explode. Look, this is the kind of thing that qualifies as Very Legitimate History, and if you want a fairly deep understanding of what made the American Revolution revolutionary in the social sense, it's a great listen. It's probably not what the casual watcher of the History Channel wants to chew on, unless he's in training to go to a Harvard bar and have an argument with a math genius from Southie.
"Work of a true scholar."
Yes There was so much information, it needs to be read again for total understanding.
How the people of the revolutionary era thought.
Not much the performance was very dry.
No