the american revolution by gordon s wood

The Constitution of 1787 created a national republic in its own right, with a bicameral legislature, a single executive, and an independent supreme court-a government spanning half a continent that, unlike the Confederation, was designed to bypass the states and operate directly on individuals. It was a radically new government altogether-one that utterly transformed the structure of central authority and greatly diminished the power of the several states.

The new government adopted in 1787–88 was not a stronger league of friendship with a few new powers added to the Congress. It was a momentous change, and one not at all anticipated in 1776. We are apt to assume that the transformation was inevitable, but we should not. Yet a brief ten years later, Americans ended up scrapping these Articles of Confederation and creating a totally new and powerful national government in its place. It was an event that, he argues, “in 1776 no one in his wildest dreams ever imagined.”

Read an excerpt from Chapter 3: The Crisis of the 1780s to learn how Wood sets up a pivotal moment in American history: the creation of the federal Constitution of 1787. In this newest book, Wood explores what he calls “the most creative period of constitutionalism in American history and one of the most creative in modern Western history,” the years between the 1760s and the early 1800s.

In Power and Liberty, Constitutionalism in the American Revolution , Wood distills his research and thinking on the subject into a compact and readable volume. Reaching beyond the academy, characters in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting even reference his work while debating the nature of early American economics over drinks at a Harvard bar. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and a Board Member Emeritus of the Museum of the American Revolution, his teaching and mentorship over 50 years continues to influence current and emerging scholarship. Wood has written numerous books that have changed the course of American historical study, including winners of the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes. One of the most prominent historians of the American Revolution, Dr.

The american revolution by gordon s wood