The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States Review

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The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States ReviewFirst of all I must say that, quite simply put, Pulitzer prize winner Dr Gordon Wood has crafted yet another masterpiece. "The Idea of America " is a phenomenal selection of essays regarding the American Revolution and Early Republic with a smorgasbord of topics ranging from trends in historiography, Conspiracy in pre Revolutionary thought, the depth of Thomas Jefferson's republican radicalism, and fears in the early republic of a connection between federalism and a reestablishment of monarchy.
This work is a series of essays written by Woods over the course of his impressive career in colonial/early Republic writing spanning nearly six decades! Although primarily a work of analysis, this work is an absolute page turner after the initial chapter on historiography. Never before have a found a work of analysis to be so absolutely satisfying of a read. The above-mentioned first chapter is primarily a discussion of the development of revolutionary history writing from the Progressive movement to the later Neo Whig/idealistic interpretations to Woods' own synthesis of both styles. He argues quite convincingly that although ideas cannot by themselves lead to actions they play a significant role in forming of the motives that did lead to action.
Most fascinating for myself was the chapter on `Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style...'. So engrossing was his description and analysis of the origins of conspiracy theories in pre Revolutionary 18th century America and Europe that I completely forgot my normal note taking for pages at a time. His argument is that rather than widespread conspiracy theories and a "paranoid style" being somehow unique to Americans as Richard Hofstadter wrote decades ago, they were themselves a logical outgrowth of the enlightenment belief in natural law. In compelling fashion Woods analyzes this phenomenon. Indeed, I found myself through this chapter now searching for further, more thorough development of the topic.
Also gripping in its own right is the chapter on `Disinterestedness' in politics of the early Republic. This is particularly interesting to those biography nuts out there as it gets right to the heart of the issue of the profiles of honorably disinterested public figures and what this actually meant for the revolutionary generation. As hard as it is to believe in time when nearly all public `servants' are up to their necks in some corruption scandal or another, Woods does justice in describing a time when there actually were some (John Adams and George Washington for example) who believed in doing the right things for the nation and the citizens living within its borders.
Really one could go on and on about the phenomenal scholarship and analysis contained within this collection of essays, as well as Dr. Woods gripping writing style. All in all this is a book which should be included in any college survey of the pre-revolution/early republic period. `The Idea of America' is a six star book that I can unfortunately only rate with five.
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