About the Book
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.
Reviews
"A bold, intelligent, and thoroughly engaging interpretation of the
period from the birth of the republic to the emergence of a mass
democratic society in the early part of the 19th century... Gordon Wood
has written an immensely important book that deserves a wide readership
among scholars and anyone interested in American history. The book will
certainly influence how future historians write about the triumphs and
tragedies of the early republic."--The Providence Journal-Bulletin
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.
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