by Gordon Wood
Reviewed by Bruce Lesh

Gordon Wood’s book will provide classroom teachers with a challenging, but worthwhile, examination of the evolution and implications of the founding generation’s political worldview.

Now, almost forty years after its original publication, Gordon Wood’s seminal study of the political transformation in American political culture reminds classroom teachers of the amazing ideological transformation that occurred between the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution. Wood argues that Americans radically altered their understanding of the locus of political power from a belief that authority was embodied in the legislature, to one that located it within the governed. In addition, because common citizens lacked the essential political virtues of deferring individual interests to those of the common good, Wood argues that the political elites of the time created a series of filters, found in the Constitution, to ensure that the political betters would govern the common man. Checks and balances, federalism, the Electoral College, and the indirect election of the legislature’s upper house came to define the barriers between the oft-failed direct democracy and the Republic that was given genesis in Philadelphia in 1787. Much of Wood’s “Republican thesis” has come to influence major American history textbooks and other instructional material.For teachers of the American Revolution, Wood’s treatment of the “Ideology of the Revolution” is essential background reading. His deliberate tracing of the evolution of Radical Whig political thought from its English heritage to its application in the colonies will deepen teachers’ knowledge of the shifts in political theory that fostered the revolution of 1776. Another section that is applicable to most middle and high school curricula is the section titled “The Critical Period,” about the Articles of Confederation. Wood treats the development and implementation of the “league of friendship” in a way that would benefit teachers who are looking to expand their knowledge of this transitional period. Wood enumerates numerous anecdotes regarding the problems both generated by, and left unresolved under the Articles. Wood’s discussion of the “Vices of the System” will deepen any teacher’s investigation into the efficacy of the Articles.

Although Wood’s thesis has influenced textbook organization and other materials of instruction, his book should be explored only by the hardiest of high school teachers and students. Its length and depth of argument sit well above the reading level of most eleventh graders. Nonetheless, judicious use of quotes from the book by an experienced educator will enliven any classroom examination of the political theories behind the American Revolution, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitutional Convention.

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