Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. Now, in the newest volume in the series, one of America's most esteemed historians, Gordon S. Wood, offers a brilliant account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812.
As Wood reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life--in politics, society, economy, and culture. The men who founded the new government had high hopes for the future, but few of their hopes and dreams worked out quite as they expected. They hated political parties but parties nonetheless emerged. Some wanted the United States to become a great fiscal-military state like those of Britain and France; others wanted the country to remain a rural agricultural state very different from the European states. Instead, by 1815 the United States became something neither group anticipated. Many leaders expected American culture to flourish and surpass that of Europe; instead it became popularized and vulgarized. The leaders also hope to see the end of slavery; instead, despite the release of many slaves and the end of slavery in the North, slavery was stronger in 1815 than it had been in 1789. Many wanted to avoid entanglements with Europe, but instead the
country became involved in Europe's wars and ended up waging another war with the former mother country. Still, with a new generation emerging by 1815, most Americans were confident and optimistic about the future of their country.
Named a New York Times Notable Book, Empire of Liberty offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.


Author: Gordon S. Wood
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 10/28/2009
Pages: 800
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.95lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 2.50d
ISBN: 9780195039146


Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/17/2009 pg. 54
Booklist 09/15/2009 pg. 19
Library Journal 09/15/2009 pg. 70
Publishers Weekly Best Books 11/02/2009 pg. 28
New York Times Book Review 11/29/2009 pg. 12
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/06/2009 pg. 22
New York Times Book Review 12/06/2009 pg. 58
Books & Culture 01/01/2010 pg. 8
New York Review of Books 03/25/2010 pg. 29
Choice 04/01/2010

About the Author

Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. His books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Radicalism of the American Revolution, the Bancroft Prize-winning The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, and The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History. He writes frequently for The New York Review of Books and The New Republic.



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