The American Revolution

In The American Revolution, Gordon S. Wood makes new the story of how and why the American colonies grew apart from and broke with their mother country, establishing a fundamentally new experiment in government. Writing with great elegance and authority, he awakens us to the drama and contingency of those long-ago events and teases out, magnificently, the process of mutation that led to the formation of America's distinctive and astonishingly resilient national character. The compact between the American government and its people is unique to history, and in telling the story of its birth in a single commanding narrative, Gordon S. Wood has done a service of timeless value.