Editing Gordon S. Wood

{{short description|American historian (born 1933)}}
{{Other people|Gordon Wood}}
{{Infobox person
| birth_name         = Gordon Stewart Wood<ref name=Contemporary>[[Contemporary Authors]] Online, [[Gale (publisher)|Gale]], 2010. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [[Farmington Hills, Michigan|Farmington Hills, Mich.]]: Gale, 2010. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC. Document Number: H1000107915. Retrieved 2010-06-22</ref>
| image              = Gordon S. Wood 2008.jpg
| image_size         = 
| caption            = Wood in 2008
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|1933|11|27}}
| birth_place        = [[Concord, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date         = 
| death_place        = 
| children           = 3, including [[Christopher Wood (art historian)|Christopher]]
| occupation         = {{hlist|Historian|author}}
| module             = {{Infobox academic |embed=yes
| discipline             = History
| workplaces         = {{ubl
  |[[College of William and Mary]]
  |Harvard University
  |[[University of Michigan]]
  |[[Brown University]]
  |[[Cambridge University]]
  |[[Northwestern University School of Law|Northwestern University]]}}
| education         = [[Tufts University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />{{nowrap|[[Harvard University]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]], [[PhD]])}}
| doctoral_advisor   = [[Bernard Bailyn]]
| doctoral_students  = 
| known_for          = 
| awards             = [[Pulitzer Prize for History|Pulitzer Prize]] (1993)<br />[[Bancroft Prize]] (1970)<br />[[National Humanities Medal]] (2010)
}}
}}
'''Gordon Stewart Wood''' (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at [[Brown University]]. He is a recipient of the 1993 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] for ''[[The Radicalism of the American Revolution]]'' (1992). His book ''The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787'' (1969) won the 1970 [[Bancroft Prize]]. In 2010, he was awarded the [[National Humanities Medal]] by President [[Barack Obama]].

==Early life and education==
Wood was born in [[Concord, Massachusetts]], and grew up in [[Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester]] and [[Waltham, Massachusetts|Waltham]]. He graduated ''[[summa cum laude]]'' and [[Phi Beta Kappa]] from [[Tufts University]] in 1955 and has served as a [[trustee]] there. After serving in the [[United States Air Force]] in [[Japan]], during which time he earned an [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] at [[Harvard University]], he entered the [[PhD|Ph.D.]] program in history at Harvard, where he studied under [[Bernard Bailyn]], receiving his PhD in 1964.

==Career==
Wood has taught at [[Harvard University]], the [[College of William and Mary]], the [[University of Michigan]], [[Brown University]], and in 1982–83 was [[Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions|Pitt Professor]] at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]].

In addition to his books (listed below), Wood has written numerous influential articles, notably "Rhetoric and Reality in the [[American Revolution]]" (1966), "Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style: Causality and Deceit in the Eighteenth Century" (1982), and "Interests and Disinterestedness in the Making of the [[Constitution]]" (1987). He is a frequent contributor to ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' and ''[[The New Republic]]''.

A recent project was the third volume of the ''[[Oxford History of the United States]]'' – ''Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815'' (2009) – a finalist for the [[Pulitzer Prize]].

Contributing to the anthology ''Our American Story'' (2019), Wood addressed the possibility of a shared American narrative. He focused on the idea of equality as "the most radical and most powerful ideological force" that the [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolution]] unleashed. "This powerful sense of equality is still alive and well in America, and despite all of its disturbing and unsettling consequences, it is what makes us one people."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Claybourn |editor-first1=Joshua |editor-link1=Joshua Claybourn |title=Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative |date=2019 |publisher=Potomac Books |location=Lincoln, NE |isbn=978-1640121706 |pages=55–65 }}</ref>
Wood was elected as a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1988<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/gordon-stewart-wood|title = Gordon Stewart Wood| date=6 December 2023 }}</ref> and the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Gordon+S.+Wood&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2022-02-22|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
[[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] [[Newt Gingrich]] publicly and effusively praised Wood's ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992).  Wood, who met Gingrich once in 1994, surmised that Gingrich may have approved because the book "had a kind of Toquevillian touch to it, I guess, maybe suggesting American exceptionalism, that he liked".  He jokingly described Gingrich's praise in an interview on [[C-SPAN]] in 2002 as "the kiss of death for me among a lot of academics, who are not right-wing Republicans."<ref>{{cite web |author= |title=The American Revolution|date=April 21, 2002 |work=Booknotes  |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?168964-1/the-american-revolution |access-date=November 14, 2021}}</ref>

Wood was mentioned in the 1997 film ''[[Good Will Hunting]].'' In one scene, [[Matt Damon]]'s character mentions Gordon Wood while standing up to a Harvard student who is ridiculing [[Ben Affleck]]'s character at a bar. He accuses the Harvard student of shallowly reiterating ideas he has encountered in his coursework, telling him that soon he would be "regurgitating Gordon Wood, talking about [...] the pre-Revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization."<ref>{{cite web |author=Matt Damon and Ben Affleck |title=American Rhetoric: Movie Speech - "Good Will Hunting"| url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/specialengagements/moviespeechgoodwillhunting.html |access-date=July 9, 2020 }}</ref> Wood said of the scene, "That’s my two seconds of fame! More kids know about that than any of the books I have written."<ref>{{cite web|url= https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/160710|title= Gordon Wood says his 15 minutes of fame came with "Good Will Hunting" (Interview)|website=History News Network|first=Scott|last=Porch|date=September 24, 2015}}</ref> This scene was later parodied by the television show ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'', in which the character [[Charlie Kelly (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)|Charlie Kelly]] attempts to "pull a Good Will Hunting" and asks "does no one know who Gordon Wood is?"

==Personal life==
Wood married the former Louise Goss on April 30, 1956. They have three children.<ref name=Contemporary />

==Works==
{{Incomplete list|date=July 2021}}

=== Books ===
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?168964-1/the-american-revolution ''Booknotes'' interview with Wood on ''The American Revolution: A History'', April 21, 2002], [[C-SPAN]]| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?182263-1/the-americanization-benjamin-franklin Interview with Wood on ''The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin'', June 4, 2004], [[C-SPAN]]| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?192801-1/revolutionary-characters-made-founders-different Presentation by Wood on ''Revolutionary Characters'', May 30, 2006], [[C-SPAN]]| video4 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?193080-1/after-words-gordon-wood ''After Words'' interview with Wood on ''Revolutionary Characters'', July 1, 2006], [[C-SPAN]]| video5 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?204550-1/qa-gordon-wood ''Q&A'' interview with Wood on ''The Purpose of the Past'', April 13, 2008], [[C-SPAN]]| video6 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?281368-3/the-purposes-past Presentation by Wood on ''The Purposes of the Past'', September 27, 2008], [[C-SPAN]]| video7 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?289534-1/empire-liberty Presentation by Wood on ''Empire of Liberty'', October 7, 2009], [[C-SPAN]] | video8 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?295631-26/empire-liberty Presentation by Wood on ''Empire of Liberty'', September 25, 2010], [[C-SPAN]] | video9 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?300328-1/the-idea-america Presentation by Wood on ''The Idea of America'', May 18, 2011], [[C-SPAN]] | video10 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?302913-1/the-idea-america Presentation by Wood on ''The Idea of America'', November 29, 2011], [[C-SPAN]] | video11 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?436357-1/friends-divided Presentation by Wood on ''Friends Divided'', November 1, 2017], [[C-SPAN]] | video12 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?437359-2/qa-gordon-wood ''Q&A'' interview with Wood on ''Friends Divided'', December 17, 2017], [[C-SPAN]]}} 
* ''The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787''. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1969.<!--|isbn=9780807847237-->
* ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution''. New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf]], 1992. ({{ISBN|978-0679736882}})
* ''The American Revolution: A History''. New York: [[Modern Library]], 2001. ({{ISBN|978-0812970418}})
* ''The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin''. New York: [[Penguin Press]], 2004. ({{ISBN|978-0143035282}})
* ''Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different''. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. ({{ISBN|978-0143112082}})
* ''The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History''. New York: Penguin Press, 2008. ({{ISBN|978-0143115045}})
* ''[[Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815]]''. New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 2010. ({{ISBN|978-0199832460}})
* ''The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States''. New York: Penguin, 2011. ({{ISBN|978-0143121244}})
*''Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson''. New York: Penguin, 2017. ({{ISBN|978-0735224735}})
* ''Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution''. New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 2021. ({{ISBN|978-0197546918}})

===Pamphlets and lectures===
* ''Revolution and the Political Integration of the Enslaved and Disenfranchised''. Washington, DC: [[American Enterprise Institute]], 1974. ({{ISBN|978-0844713045}})
* ''The Making of the Constitution''. Waco, Texas: [[Baylor University Press]], 1987. ({{ISBN|978-0918954541}})
* ''Monarchism and Republicanism in the Early United States''. (Melbourne, Australia: [[La Trobe University]], 2000.

===Co-Author===
* (With [[Jack Pole|J.R. Pole]]) ''Social Radicalism and the Idea of Equality in the American Revolution''. Houston, Texas: [[University of St. Thomas (Texas)|University of St. Thomas]], 1976.
* (With others) ''The Great Republic''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1977; 4th ed.: Lexington, Massachusetts: [[D. C. Heath and Company|Heath]], 1992.

===Book chapters===

* ''Leadership in the American Revolution''. Washington, DC: [[Library of Congress]], 1974.
* ''[[Sally Hemings]] and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture''. Peter Onuf and Jan Lewis (eds.), Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1999.
* ''To the Best of My Ability: The American Presidency''. [[James M. McPherson]] (ed.). New York: [[Society of American Historians]], 2000.
* "Can the United States Be One People?" ''Our American Story''. [[Joshua Claybourn]] (ed.), Lincoln, Nebraska: [[Potomac Books]], 2019. ({{ISBN|978-1640121706}})

===As editor===

* ''Representation in the American Revolution''. Charlottesville, Virginia: [[University of Virginia Press]], 1969. ({{ISBN|978-0813927220}})
* ''The Rising Glory of America, 1760–1820''. New York: [[George Braziller]], 1971. Rev. ed.: Boston: [[Northeastern University Press]], 1990. ({{ISBN|978-1555530907}})
* ''The Confederation and the Constitution''. Boston: [[Little, Brown]], 1973.
* With Louise G. Wood. ''Russian-American Dialogue on the American Revolution''. Columbia, Missouri: [[University of Missouri Press]], 1995.
* With Paul A. Gilje et al. ''Wages of Independence: Capitalism in the Early American Republic''. Rowman & Littlefield, 1997. ({{ISBN|978-0945612520}})
* With Anthony Molho. ''Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past''. Princeton, New Jersey: [[Princeton University Press]], 1998. ({{ISBN|978-0691058115}})
* ''John Adams: Revolutionary Writings 1755–1783'' (2 vols.). New York: The Library of America, 2011. ({{ISBN|978-1598530902}})
* ''The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate 1764–1776'' (2 vols.). New York: The Library of America, 2015. ({{ISBN|978-1598533781}})
* ''John Adams: Writings from the New Nation 1784–1826''. New York: The Library of America, 2016. ({{ISBN|978-1598534665}})

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://vivo.brown.edu/display/gwood "Gordon S. Wood"], Faculty Webpage, Brown University
* [http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/buniverse/videos/view/?id=233 Gordon S. Wood, "The Learning of Liberty for Civic Life"]{{Dead link|date=December 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, lectures at Boston University
* {{IMDb name|0971327}}
* {{C-SPAN|59649}}
** [https://www.c-span.org/video/?295328-1/depth-gordon-wood ''In Depth'' interview with Wood, September 5, 2010]

{{Oxford History of the United States}}
{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 1976–2000}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Gordon S.}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Brown University faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University Department of History faculty]]
[[Category:Historians of the American Revolution]]
[[Category:Historians of the United States]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:National Humanities Medal recipients]]
[[Category:People from Concord, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Bancroft Prize winners]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for History winners]]
[[Category:College of William & Mary faculty]]
[[Category:Tufts University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Michigan faculty]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows]]
[[Category:Historians from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]