The Idea of America
Reflections on the Birth of the United States
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The Idea of America
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Narrated by:
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Robert Fass
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By:
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Gordon S Wood
About this listen
The preeminent historian of the American Revolution explains why it remains the most significant event in our history.
©2011 Gordon S. Wood (P)2011 PenguinListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,116
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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Friends Divided
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 447
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 399
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 397
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Great Read
- By Jean on 12-22-17
By: Gordon S. Wood
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The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
Central to America's idea of itself is the character of Benjamin Franklin. We all know him, or think we do: In recent works and in our inherited conventional wisdom, he remains fixed in place as a genial polymath and self-improver who was so very American that he is known by us all as the first American.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I have good news and bad news
- By Ernie on 07-22-04
By: Gordon S. Wood
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The Purpose of the Past
- Reflections on the Uses of History
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
History is to society what memory is to the individual. Without it, we don't know who we are and we can't make wise decisions about our future. But while the nature of memory is constant, the nature of history has changed radically over the past 40 years. Historian Gordon Wood examines the sea change in his field through consideration of some of its most important historians and their works.
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1 out of 5 stars
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What is his point?
- By Tammy on 03-21-08
By: Gordon S. Wood
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Ratification
- The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788
- By: Pauline Maier
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
When the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia adjourned late in the summer of 1787, the delegates returned to their states to report on the new Constitution, which had to be ratified by specially elected conventions in at least nine states. Pauline Maier recounts the dramatic events of the ensuing debate in homes, taverns, and convention halls, drawing generously on the speeches and letters of founding fathers, both familiar and forgotten, on all sides.
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4 out of 5 stars
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History Always Repeats
- By Howard on 08-27-11
By: Pauline Maier
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Founding Brothers
- The Revolutionary Generation (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 919
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 812
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 810
An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic - John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great!
- By Gotta Tellya on 08-10-16
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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American Dialogue
- The Founders and Us
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 248
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 214
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue, Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A fine work, even with the editorializing
- By Casey Kerrick on 11-24-18
By: Joseph J. Ellis
What listeners say about The Idea of America
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- beckie geren
- 01-06-23
Excellent primer for putting today in context and in perspective
Wood helps makes the mania of today understandable, but no less intolerable. Should be required reading for members of Congress.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Roger
- 01-25-12
Sophisticated analyses
These essays are sophisticated historical analyses. A listener needs to be familiar with the major developments of the Revolutionary and early Republican periods as well as with the major historical interpretations of such periods. This is therefore not an introductory work.
It is instead an advanced scholarly work. The essays challenge some of the commonly accepted interpretations of our early history in some intriguing and well argued ways. I found them both convincing and enjoyable.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- John
- 08-04-11
MetaHistory
This is a history of historian's views of the American Revolution and following years, not a history of those years per se. Very, very abstract and vague. Almost no names of individuals (except to say they weren't exactly mad)... A lot more mention of historians from the 1940s to 1970s than of the founding fathers or anyone else from circa 1800 AD.
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5 people found this helpful