Empire of Liberty

A History of the Early Republic

By: Gordon S. Wood

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 30 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

In Empire of Liberty, one of America's most esteemed historians, Gordon S. Wood, offers a brilliant account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812.

As Wood reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life - in politics, society, economy, and culture. The men who founded the new government had high hopes for the future, but few of their hopes and dreams worked out quite as they expected. They hated political parties but parties nonetheless emerged. Some wanted the United States to become a great fiscal-military state, like those of Britain and France; others wanted the country to remain a rural agricultural state very different from the European states. Instead, by 1815 the United States became something neither group anticipated. Named a New York Times Notable Book, Empire of Liberty, part of The Oxford History of the United States series, offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.

The Oxford History of the United States is considered the gold standard for serious historians and general readers (and listeners) alike. Three of the titles have won the Pulitzer Prize for history; two have been Pulitzer Prize finalists, and all of them have enjoyed critical and commercial success.

Please note: The individual volumes of the series have not been published in historical order. Empire of Liberty is number IV in The Oxford History of the United States.

Listen to more of the definitive Oxford History of the United States.

©2009 Gordon S. Wood (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner - Best History Audiobook, 2011

Thrilling history read by a master of narration

What did you like best about this story?

Wonderful development of the history of our country. Not having been much of a history student, it was deeply moving to learn how we developed in the late 1700's.

What does Robert Fass bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Robert Fass has a superb voice for a very long read. Never got tired of his voice. Some, like Scott Brick, are for me, good for a short read. But Robert Fass is just superb.

Engaging from start to finish!

A fascinating account of the early United States. Covering just about every major event of the period keeping you engaged from start to finish. The narration and story is presented in excellent fashion and for me personally it seemed like a much shorter listen than most 30 hour audiobooks.

America Begins

Too botch narrative of America's growth in all its political, social, economic and cultural aspects from Washington's presidency through the War of 1812.

Wow! Astoundingly good!

For a long time I was apprehensive about this book, and afraid that it would be one that drones on and on in my headphones while I can barely pay attention. But I've been on a pretty serious history kick lately and I gave it a shot because I knew very little about the period. Now it's my favorite American history book to date by a mile.

Gordon Wood weaves his anecdotes, political facts and social tidbits in a masterfully informative way, while his writing flows as elegantly as great fiction. Robert Fass reads with perfect pitch, cadence and inflection. I was glued to my headphones from the first hour to the end and there wasn't a single boring chapter. I hadn't realized before how pivotal a time this was in terms of the origins of American ideology, or how unprecedented many of these ideas were. Professor Wood also exposes the absurd cluelessness of these supposedly great men with good humor, and their ironic unfunny hypocrisies with poignancy. There are so many lessons to be learned here, and I can't recommend enough that you take this journey back in time. I suspect you will be happy that you did.

How our country evolved and survived.

This is a wonderful book on the early years of our country. It begins just after the Revolution and ends right after the War of 1812. The Presidents covered are Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. I am surprised how we revere these men so highly because if they were elected today there Presidency would not get as high of marks, excepting Washington. He was exactly the right leader to have as our first President.

This book gives a lot of time to the power of the Presidency which is engagingly told as it evolved into what we have today. It also talks about the Supreme Court and it's evolution.

I enjoyed the chapters on the "Great Enlightenment" and other religious movements that went on during this period. The separation of Church and State gets some explanations too.

The most surprising thing I learned was what a hypocrite Thomas Jefferson was and not only with his slaves but as President. He didn't think a United States Bank was a good thing until he became President. He was so pro France that he wanted us to get involved against Great Britain. He said he wanted freedom for all men, but he really meant only the elite. He felt the lower classes were too stupid to be trusted to vote. He was a very difficult man to really understand as he did much good for our country but a lot of what he said was hard to swallow.

I liked the way the author described our national character evolving differently from other countries. Most farmers in America were also blacksmith, weavers, tanners or some other trade to supplement their farming.

The War of 1812 was a war of contradictions. It was badly managed by the Madison administration and it's still a surprise to me on how we won the war! I think Great Britain was just tired of fighting.
It also brought the country together as nothing had done before and we finally became a nation of states instead states united as a nation.

The narrator was very good and this is a long book, 30 plus hours so he was a pleasure.

This book is Book 2 in the Oxford History of the United States. I knew very little about this time in our country's history as we mostly learn anecdotes of the various statesmen and many of them aren't true. I also have the next volume and will read that soon. I can highly recommend this book.

Great piece of history.

I purchased this book due to it's high ratings and to supplement my learning in an American National Government class I was taking at the time. It proved to be more than valuable as I was able to better understand and appreciate my class more. I would have listened to this book either way. ☺

Reads Like a Story

Histories can tend to be dry reading. This one kept my attention well. It is not as captivating as an historical fiction novel, but was undoubtedly more accurate. It was especially interesting to me as I was taking a college course in US History while I was listening. It gave me a much better appreciation for the revolution in thought and culture that precipitated the American Revolution and that grew out of it - two very different things. This American experiment in Republican liberty is truly an astonishing thing, and the founders of our country deserve our deepest respect and admiration.

AMAZED

Wow...breathtaking in its scope! Genious in its synthesis. Such a profound and interesting view of history.

Gordon Wood and American Radicalism

In this book, Gordon Wood deepens and widens his overall thesis that the American Revolution was not a struggle of conservative economic elites against Great Britain but a radical socio political conflict that ultimately established American social egalitarianism and national idiosyncrasies as well as its experiment in representational government. Wood trace the Hamilton versus Jefferson controversies arguing that Hamilton wanted to ape Europe by strengthening the national government at the expense of fractious states while Jefferson championed the rights of ordinary white Americans. He goes on to detail the intercine conflict between Republicans and Federalists sparked by the French Revolution. Wood is very good on the War of 1812 and gives credit to Madison who managed an almost unbelievable honorable stalemate and the self immolation of the Federalist opposition at the Hartford Convention of 1814. I have always felt that Wood bends over backwards to praise Jefferson at the expense of Hamilton which is unfair and mistaken hero worship. For example, he puts the best face on Jefferson ‘s self imposed disastrous full embargo on both Great Britain and France. Moreover, while he doesn’t ignore Jefferson’s complicity in American slavery, he mentions his intellectual attacks on the institution as genuine and not hypocritical. All that said, this is a powerful book which I fully recommend.

learned alot about this post revolution time frame

Interesting to get the persepectives of that era and compare them to current affairs. There never was a set in stone, perfect, flawless America; we would be well served though to revisit sprint periods of idealistic striving.