Synopses & Reviews
The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, two
New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in the newest volume in the series, 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. Many leaders expected American culture to flourish and surpass that of Europe; instead it became popularized and vulgarized. The leaders also hope to see the end of slavery; instead, despite the release of many slaves and the end of slavery in the North, slavery was stronger in 1815 than it had been in 1789. Many wanted to avoid entanglements with Europe, but instead the country became involved in Europe's wars and ended up waging another war with the former mother country. Still, with a new generation emerging by 1815, most Americans were confident and optimistic about the future of their country.
Named a New York Times Notable Book, Empire of Liberty offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.
Review
A Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History
A New York Times Bestseller
"Told with enormous insight ... On every page of this book, Wood's subtlety and erudition show. Grand in scope and a landmark achievement of scholarship, Empire of Liberty is a tour de force, the culmination of a lifetime of brilliant thinking and writing."--The New York Times Book Review
"Empire of Liberty will rightly take its place among the authoritative volumes in this important and influential series."--The Washington Post
"Deftly written and lucidly argues, it teems with insights and arguments that make us look at familiar topics in fresh ways.--The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Wood's contribution will stand both as an extraordinary achievement of historical synthesis, and as witness to its own time. It will not soon be surpassed"--The Weekly Standard
Selected as one of 'The Top 25 Books of 2009'--The Atlantic
Selected as one of 'The Most Notable Books of 2009'--The New York Times Book Review
"This work by the dean of Federalist scholars, and the newest title in the splendid Oxford History of the United States, has been widely hailed as the definitive history of the era."--American Heritage Magazine
"Gordon S. Wood's penetrating history of the early American Republic, is one of the best and certainly most rewarding books of the year. It is a winter's read for the serious general reader who may read only one book in a lifetime of this period. This is that book."--The Dallas Morning News
Synopsis
The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. In this volume, 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. Integrating all aspects of life, from politics and law to the economy and culture, Empire of Liberty offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.
About the Author
Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. His books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Radicalism of the American Revolution, the Bancroft Prize-winning
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, and
The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History. He writes frequently for
The New York Review of Books and
The New Republic.
Table of Contents
Editor's Introduction
Introduction: Rip Van Winkle's America
1. Experiment in Republicanism
2. A Monarchical Republic
3. The Federalist Program
4. The Emergence of the Jeffersonian Republican Party
5. The French Revolution in America
6. John Adams and the Few and the Many
7. The Crisis of 1798-1799
8. The Jeffersonian Revolution of 1800
9. Republican Society
10. The Jeffersonian West
11. Law and an Independent Judiciary
12. Chief Justice John Marshall and the Origins of Judicial Review
13. Republican Reforms
14. Between Slavery and Freedom
15. The Rising Glory of America
16. Republican Religion
17. Republican Diplomacy
18. The War of 1812
19. A World Within Themselves
Bibliographic Essay