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Rating: 
Summary: A Classic
Review: I don't have much to add beyond what others have written regarding The Creation of the American Republic. This is a fantastic study of the political thought and constitutional debates of the American founding. It is well-written, sharply analytical, and of indispensable value more thirty years after it was written. It is particularly remarkable in that it succeeds in weaving political, intellectual, and social history together cogently and in a way that avoids teleology. In reading Wood's book, you will gain a sense of the way in which accidents, debates, and political uncertainty interacted with 18th century notions of republicanism to eventually create a uniquely American system of politics and the remarkably adaptable and resilient constitution that underpins it.
Rating:
Summary: understanding American political institutions
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It helped me gain a deeper and more accurate understanding of the principles embodied in the U.S. constitution, the nature of American politics, and the structure of American government, both state and federal, as well as the relationship between the federal government and the states. It's a must-read for any serious student of American history, government, and politics.
Rating:
Summary: The Creration of the American Republic, 1776-1787
Review: The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 written by Gordon S. Wood is about the intellectual origins of the formation of the federal Constitution. This book makes us understand where the constitution-makers acted, i.e. where in the political literature of the period to the point where the often unspoken premises of thought became clear and explicit.We begin to understand and get a glimpse of what late eighteenth-century Americans meant when they talked about living in an enlightened age. Reading this volume fine tunes our focus, beneath the variety and idiosyncrasies of American opinion, there emerged a general pattern of beliefs about social process... a set of common assumptions about history, society, and politics that connected and made significant seemingly discrete and unrelated ideas understood and relevant. We see and better appreciate the distinctiveness of the political culture in which the Revolutionary generation operated. We begin to appreciate the Americans of the Revolutionary generation had constructed not simply new forms of government, but an entirely new conception of politics, a conception that took them out of an essentially classical and medieval world of political dicussion into one that was recognizably modern. I found this book to be very well written and profoundly thoughtful, being very comprehensive in that it brings to the forefront the political thought of the Americans during the period of constitution-making. Without understanding the thought process involved in writing the Constitution you have little chance in thouroughly understanding the fundamental issues, political culture, for reexamining ideas of the revolutionary era. This is a perceptive study into these fundamental issues, giving us a greater appreciation for the Founders and the thought processes involved in the creation of the American republic. Godron S. Wood, Bernard Bailyn, Forrest McDonald and Daniel Boorstin all have made great progress in defining this tranformation of political thought of the Revoultionary era easily understandable, lively and penetrating. We should be ever in debt to these men for their intellectual prowess with regard to this time in our history.
Rating:
Summary: Creation of the American Republic
Review: This is one of those rare books that comes along once in a generation. No one prior, and no one since have come close to explaining the political ideology of the American Revolution and "Critical Period" so thoroughly. Gordon Wood picks up where Bernard Bailyn (who shows how American colonial governments evolved)leaves off and provides keen insight into how our present government came to be.
Wood makes no apologies for his subject, he simply does a superb job of providing the reader with evidence from which conclusions can be drawn. The Constitution is the culmination of the Revolution, but somehow it has allowed for our government to become the largest purveyor of entitlements the world has ever known. One wonders how the Articles of Confederation could have done much worse. Wood explains that Americans were freer under the Articles, but the politcos of the day saw an opportunity to grab a hold of the government and make people think they are actually a part of the decisions being made. Somewhere along the line, the original purity of American democracy became perverted into the monstrous federal government we see today.
But it wasn't always this way. Americans, according to Wood, saw themselves as the standard bearers for the English constitution once they saw how the English themselves had lost sight of their constitution's intent. They fought the war and crafted individual governments. Then along came the men of ambition who could not strive within the confines of a state government and needed something that would allow for greater achievement. Imperium in imperio became the obective of the new federal government.
Wood's book is excellent. This should be required reader for anyone serving in Congress (though most would not understand what Wood is saying and the rest would be too stupid to grasp the real meaning of how our government came to be and who it was meant to serve). Somehow special interests spanning the political spectrum have come to be and most common Americans are forced to make decisions being informed mainly by the bombardement of political advertisements we see on television.
If one desires to understand what the American Revolution meant for our political system, this book is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This outstanding book is generally regarded as fundamental to understanding the American Revolution. Wood immersed himself in contemporary writings including a huge array of political pamphlets, sermons, letters, and other texts in an attempt to reconstruct the thinking of the people who made the Revolution and the Constitution. Wood begins with a reconstruction of how colonial Americans perceived the political organization of their societies, their relationship with Britain, and how they conceived politics in general. The initial parts of the book parallel and draw from Bernard Bailyn's outstanding book, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Indeed, much of Wood's book can be seen as sequel to Bailyn's book.
Wood begins with a reconstruction of the pre-Revolutionary conception of politics. Like Bailyn, Wood reconstructs this as a compound of several elements but dominated by certain general Enlightenment concepts and the specific framework developed by dissident 18th century British Whig intellectuals. Basic concepts included the idea that political structure reflected basic social structures, that the 'people' embodied by parliamentary representation were opposed and oppressed by the Crown, and an obsession with 'corruption' induced by abuse of the executive power of the Crown.
The successful conclusion of the Revolution, however, did not produce the outcome predicted by this conception of politics. The resulting confederation and states were perceived by many American intellectuals as dominated by greed and self-interest, there was an absence of the expected moral regeneration, and there were increasing concerns about the power of state legislatures causing both abuse of minority rights and threats to social order.
The reaction to these problems produced a wholesale revision of American's conceptions of politics. In the period leading up to the formulation of the Constitution, many ideas that we accept as basic were formulated. The nascent and later explicit Federalists severed the coupling between social and political organization. This gave government an essentially independent role and represented a form of social engineering because the Federalists essentially depended on constructed institutions to guarantee social success rather than the prior emphasis on public virtue. The ideas of constitutionialism, large republics, delegation of sovereignty, mixed government with responsibility divided between states and the Federal government, and emphasis on social contracts as a source of authority all stem from this period.
Wood is careful to emphasize some particularly interesting aspects of this process. In some respects, the Federalist drive to constitutionalism was a reactionary act on the part of traditional elites who felt they were losing out in excessively egalitarian world created by the Revolution. The process was widely diffused. Important and generally recognized figures like Madison and James Wilson figure prominently in the story but Wood demonstrates how a host of other figures, many now obscure, contributed to and articulated this process.
In a sense, there were 2 American Revolutions. The first being actual revolt from the British Empire and the second being the dramatic change in political thought and institutions that followed the successful conclusion of that revolt. Wood does a wonderful job of delineating how this second revolution occurred.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This outstanding book is generally regarded as fundamental to understanding the American Revolution. Wood immersed himself in contemporary writings including a huge array of political pamphlets, sermons, letters, and other texts in an attempt to reconstruct the thinking of the people who made the Revolution and the Constitution. Wood begins with a reconstruction of how colonial Americans perceived the political organization of their societies, their relationship with Britain, and how they conceived politics in general. The initial parts of the book parallel and draw from Bernard Bailyn's outstanding book, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Indeed, much of Wood's book can be seen as sequel to Bailyn's book.
Wood begins with a reconstruction of the pre-Revolutionary conception of politics. Like Bailyn, Wood reconstructs this as a compound of several elements but dominated by certain general Enlightenment concepts and the specific framework developed by dissident 18th century British Whig intellectuals. Basic concepts included the idea that political structure reflected basic social structures, that the 'people' embodied by parliamentary representation were opposed and oppressed by the Crown, and an obsession with 'corruption' induced by abuse of the executive power of the Crown.
The successful conclusion of the Revolution, however, did not produce the outcome predicted by this conception of politics. The resulting confederation and states were perceived by many American intellectuals as dominated by greed and self-interest, there was an absence of the expected moral regeneration, and there were increasing concerns about the power of state legislatures causing both abuse of minority rights and threats to social order.
The reaction to these problems produced a wholesale revision of American's conceptions of politics. In the period leading up to the formulation of the Constitution, many ideas that we accept as basic were formulated. The nascent and later explicit Federalists severed the coupling between social and political organization. This gave government an essentially independent role and represented a form of social engineering because the Federalists essentially depended on constructed institutions to guarantee social success rather than the prior emphasis on public virtue. The ideas of constitutionialism, large republics, delegation of sovereignty, mixed government with responsibility divided between states and the Federal government, and emphasis on social contracts as a source of authority all stem from this period.
Wood is careful to emphasize some particularly interesting aspects of this process. In some respects, the Federalist drive to constitutionalism was a reactionary act on the part of traditional elites who felt they were losing out in excessively egalitarian world created by the Revolution. The process was widely diffused. Important and generally recognized figures like Madison and James Wilson figure prominently in the story but Wood demonstrates how a host of other figures, many now obscure, contributed to and articulated this process.
In a sense, there were 2 American Revolutions. The first being actual revolt from the British Empire and the second being the dramatic change in political thought and institutions that followed the successful conclusion of that revolt. Wood does a wonderful job of delineating how this second revolution occurred.
Rating:
Summary: Can't understand the Revolution without it
Review: Wood's classic is not one bit diminished by the modifications we might make to it around the edges today, more than thirty years since he wrote it. There is simply no way to understand the intellectual origins of the Revolution without it. Also a great read, very well written.
Rating:
Summary: Can't understand the Revolution without it
Review: Wood's classic is not one bit diminished by the modifications we might make to it around the edges today, more than thirty years since he wrote it. There is simply no way to understand the intellectual origins of the Revolution without it. Also a great read, very well written.
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