Gordon S Wood
Author
Summary
Gordon Wood depicts not just a break with England, but the rejection of an entire way of life. A society with feudal dependencies, a politics of patronage, and a world view in which people were divided between the nobility and 'the Herd.' He shows how the theories of the country's founders became realities that sometimes baffled and disappointed them.
Author
Summary
Why did Benjamin Franklin retire from business and become gentleman? Why did he admire the British Empire - and join the American Revolution? Why did he begin writing his Autobiography when he did? And how did the "first American" become an American in the first place? Renowned historian Gordon S. Wood spent ten years studying a legend. In this untraditional biography, he penetrates beneath 200 years' accumulation of images and representations to...