The Radicalism of the American Revolution. by Gordon Wood a short review

 Wood, Gordon. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

Historians of the American Revolution often view the Revolution against the British through the lenses of the French Revolution. A brief examination of the French Revolution reveals internal struggle, class conflict, peasant uprisings, and violence that bears similarities with many revolutionary struggles. The American Revolution appears conservative when compared to the violence seen in many Revolutions. Gordon Wood in his book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution disputes the idea that the American Revolution was a “conservative affair” centered primarily on politics and constitutional rights and “hardly a revolution at all.” (4) Wood contends that the AmericanRevolution was as “radical and social as any revolution in history, but it was radical and social in a very special eighteenth-century sense.” (5) The American Revolution not only changed the government but transformed the society. The Revolution moved the colonies from a world dominated by hierarchy, kinship, and patronage to a society of egalitarianism and democracy, expanding the growth of republican trends while undermining and eventually destroying traditional monarchial culture. The Revolution further prepared the path for a modern capitalist and liberal democratic society in the early nineteenth century.  The development of democratic culture transformed the United States into “the first society in the modern world to bring ordinary people into the affairs of government.” (243)

            Wood divides his book into three sections with each segment describing the process by which the Revolution transformed American culture and society. The book’s three sections, labeled “Monarchy,” Republicanism,” and “Democracy” illustrate the radical changes seen in American society resulting from the Revolution. In the first section, Wood sets the stage by describing the way the colonies reflected the hierarchy of Britain. While the English on both sides of the Atlantic took pride in their independence, most accepted the fact that not all were equal and that poverty produced virtue within the common people. Patterns of patriarchal patronage prevented true independence and held society together within “intricate networks of personal loyalties, obligations, and quasi-dependencies.” (57) The ability to exercise the power of patronage allowed the wielder to exercise considerable political authority.

            Within his second section, “Republicanism,” Wood further explores the flowering of republican thought and practice within the American states. The American Revolution destroyed many presuppositions of patriarchy and patronage and “brought to the surface the republican tendencies of American life.” (169) The adoption of republicanism removed the vestiges of the monarchy and created relationships built upon republican principles, transforming the society and culture.

            Within his final section, “Democracy,” Wood acknowledges that republican principles led to societal changes that the revolutionaries never intended. But the “Revolution was the source of its own contradictions,” therefore the direction the principles of the Revolution landed were beyond the control of the Founders. (230) At the heart of republicanism lay the idea of equality and all the consequences of egalitarianism. “Republican citizenship implied equality.” (233) Hamilton and other Federalists desired a society that transcended local and party concerns with representatives in power who possessed no occupations or business interests thereby freeing them to pursue the “common good of society.” (254) Yet personal and financial ambitions motivated citizens to pursue business opportunities to enrich themselves. The reality was there were few disinterested gentlemen available to serve the republic. The demands for legislator wages reflected the reality that few could serve as leisurely gentlemen. The engine which propelled the nation towards ever greater democracy was the foundation of republican ideology. Yet many revolutionaries faced disillusionment as the classical republic they envisioned transformed into an egalitarian Jacksonian democracy. The change toward greater democracy became inevitable as the societal changes within America “were driven by the same dynamic forces at work since the middle of the eighteenth century- population growth and movement and commercial expansion.” (308) The democratic social order was not the desire of the revolutionary leaders but the radical principles laid down by the Revolution eventually led to the movement that ended slavery, provided suffrage and a voice for women, and created an entrepreneurial industrial society of individuals chasing their own versions of freedom.

            Wood provides a insightful critique into the development of republican and democracy within the young United States. His explanation for the radical changes within the culture and society ring true as one surveys the early history of the republic. While Wood does acknowledge regional differences, it does appear that more explanation of the working out of these differences between the regions would offer more perspective. Wood hints that the Southern states help onto hierarchical attitudes longer than the Northern states. This is a small matter but worthy of further discussion. On the whole, The Radicalism of the American Revolution is a remarkable book.