Gordon S. Wood

The half century extending from the imperial crisis between Britain and its colonies in the 1760s to the early decades of the new republic of the United States was the greatest and most creative era of constitutionalism in American history, and perhaps in the world....

This classic work explains the evolution of American political thought from the Declaration of Independence to the ratification of the Constitution. In so doing, it greatly illuminates the origins of the present American political system....

In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood depicts not just a break with England, but the rejection of an entire way of life....

Named a New York Times Notable Book, Empire of Liberty offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era in American history....