Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815
2009 American history book by Gordon S. Wood / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 is a nonfiction book written by American historian Gordon S. Wood. Published as a clothbound hardcover in 2009 as part of the Oxford History of the United States series, the book narrates the history of the United States in the first twenty-six years following the ratification of the U. S. Constitution. The history Empire of Liberty tells privileges republicanism and political thought, characterizing the early United States as a time of growing egalitarianism unleashed by the American Revolution. The story involves both Federalists[lower-alpha 1] and Jeffersonians.[lower-alpha 2] Empire of Liberty tends to sympathize with Jeffersonians.
Author | Gordon S. Wood |
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Series | The Oxford History of the United States |
Subject | History of the United States |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication date | October 28, 2009 |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 778 |
ISBN | 9780195039146 |
Preceded by | The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 |
Followed by | What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 |
Reviews praised the book's style and prose, though its historical views have been criticized as regressive or idealistic. Publishers Weekly gave Empire of Liberty a starred review. Historian Drew McCoy called Wood's treatment of the republican family a "superb discussion". David Waldstreicher commended Wood's grasp of aspects of the history of ideas and analysis of the Founding Fathers' thought. Empire of Liberty's wider narrative has been criticized for resembling those of consensus history in the 1950s—homogenizing Americans and overstating democracy and equality as becoming widely accepted ideals—and for not doing much to integrate historiographic developments like social history, the cultural turn, and the linguistic turn. Historians Nancy Isenberg and John L. Brooke criticized the book's cursory treatment of women's history during the era.
Empire of Liberty was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for History. It was one of the New York Times Book Review's top 100 books of 2009, and it received the New-York Historical Society's American History Book Prize and the Audio Publishers Association's Audie Award for History.