I am not a fan of the way the book was structured. The author, Dr. Gordon S. Wood is a respected historian and professor who is a very acomplished writer of early American history and this is no exception. A lot of us think we know about our founding fathers and what they planned for America. Empire of Liberty is the title of Gordon Wood’s magisterial new history of the early American republic, 1789 to 1815: boom and transformation on our shores, the rise and fall of Napoleon in the wider world. So many history books are just summations of political and military events between two fixed dates. As you can see, I have been at this book for over six years. This book is the capstone of Gordon S. Wood's long career, and an outstanding addition to the Oxford History of the United States. But did you know that a lot of our founding fathers intended for the US to be a monarchy? That the Washington administration built a very strong federal government that taxed and spent their way to a prosperous nation? No one is more qualified to write a history of this vital period in the rise of the United States than Wood, and Empire of Liberty shows him at his best. For me, this book provoked a lot of re-thinking about the nature of the American Revolution. They emerge in nineteen chapters which interweave discussions about individuals (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Hamilton, Burr,to mention just a few), foreign relations (chiefly with France and Britain), subjects (law, the west, slavery, religion, political parties. No? Half of the book is organized chronologically and the other half by topic. Professor Wood not only covers the basic, better-known stories of the period in refreshing detail and style, but also gets deep into other societal and political issues that are usually not covered in tomes like these. He received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for, “Virtue became less the harsh and martial self-sacrifice of antiquity and more the modern willingness to get along with others for the sake of peace and prosperity.”, “The Civil War was the climax of a tragedy that was preordained from the time of the Revolution. Only with the elimination of slavery could this nation that Jefferson had called “the world’s best hope” for democracy even begin to fulfill its great promise.”, Pulitzer Prize Nominee for History (2010), PROSE Award for U.S. History and Biography/Autobiography (2009), New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize, Morgan Jerkins Journeys Across the USA to Retrace Black History. The last issue is where he closes his book...with its mention as the one thing that kept America's promise from being completely fulfilled and setting us up for the next great volume in the Oxford series, "What Hath God Wrought." That our founding fathers had very little. Wood, a veteran historian on the American Revolution, spends a lot of time demarcating the differences between Federalist and Republican politicians, and how sharply (and permanently) their differing visions divided the nation's body politic. He is definitely a pro-Jeffersonian Republican who were opposed to the. If, like me, your understanding of US history between the Constitutional Convention and the War of 1812 is "something something XYZ affair something" then this will get you caught right up. ), After a second read-through, Gordon S. Wood's Empire of Liberty remains my favorite volume in the Oxford History of the United States. As well, the struggle between Jefferson and Hamilton and their concepts for American society are well-covered. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Empire of Liberty is a gripping narrative on the first 25+ years of the United States of America, the story of how the founding fathers started the nation, how the country saw itself, and how the nation was defined through constant- sometimes suffocating -contradictions. Historians, in my opinion, are better when they put aside their 21st century prejudices and biases and put things into perspective that the values of society were far different in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. For me, this book provoked a lot of re-thinking about the nature of the American Revolution. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. At one point, trying to change my luck with the coeds, I decided to pursue the hipster lifestyle. Part of being a hipster is progressiveness: you dream of the Peace Corps, side with the workers, donate to Amnesty International, and eat granola. 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