the american revolution by gordon s wood

Population consisted of George Washington described as the With different laws and punishments that separated them from the masses.

These well-bred individuals were legally defined, As a result, only the “best and theīrightest” were qualified to serve in office, and the public (and government)Ĭould always count upon the most respectable of leaders to get the jobĪ psychological perception. Them to fulfill seats of power with other civic-minded elite. Rather, supporting their peers was their dutyĪnd serving the public was a constant personal sacrifice – one that obliged Regard the patronage system as a selfish means of rewarding friends. Wood points out that those patricians did not Other available offices with like-minded public servants. These virtuous citizens patronized their friends and supporters and filled Virtuous, honorable, and had a calling to greatness to serve the public in a scrupulously Titles as “gentlemen” and exemplified the greatest qualities of mankind. On top were the patricians, those who had Liberty, and took comfort knowing that liberty was safeguarded in establishedĮnglish law, customs, privileges, and a natural authority vested in theĮnglish custom divided the populace into two groups. That the people there embraced notions of liberty, much more than, say, the Wood points out that the British empire was unique in Time, before the Revolution started, all was English-minded throughout theīritish realm. Into colonial republicanism, and, ultimately, into an American democracy that Social arena to show how ideology fundamentally reshaped a monarchial society Into the ideological origins of the American Revolution and places them in the Phenomenon, Wood builds upon Bernard Bailyn’s inquiry In describing the emergence of this radical Into something completely new and distinctly American. Revolution melted the bonds that held colonial society together and remolded them That the American Revolution was radical in at least one respect: the Historian Gordon Woods agrees, but he argues The American Revolution “conservative” because, unlike other revolutions beforeĪnd after, it did not end in political chaos and blood baths.

The american revolution by gordon s wood