historian Gordon S. Wood

Anyone serious about getting the most out of life could be served by the example of Benjamin Franklin. I'm not just talking about following maxims such as “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” The mouthpieces of Franklin's wisdom, such as Poor Richard, were hilarious and ...

“The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. .... As the eminent historian Gordon Wood has pointed out, we must understand that a majority of the Articles' most famous critics—and the later constitutional Framers—were basically aristocrats in the pre-industrial, pre-capitalist sense of the ...

Thomas Paine's hand was again at work in this business, seeking to make Pennsylvania “the most advanced democracy in the world. ... That, ultimately, explains the geographic (focused on the Northern colonies), racial and gender limitations of historian Gordon Wood—made famous by a memorable ...

Gordon Wood, the top 18th-century American historian, says Hamilton had ambitions for monarchical control that the musical sidesteps. "Hamilton is full of visions of what he's going to do with the (colonial) army," Wood reports. "In a swipe at popular history, Mr. Wood says the 'Hamilton' musical offers a ...

In December of 1807, he successfully lobbied Congress to pass an Embargo Act, forbidding the export of American products to any foreign nation. The words of eminent American historian Gordon Wood deserve quoting in full here: “Perhaps never in history has a trading nation of America's size engaged in ...

The prize, which is named in honor of the philanthropists Barbara and David Zalaznick, carries a $50,000 cash award, along with the unofficial title “American historian laureate.” (The historical society ... Past winners include Jane Kamensky, Drew Gilpin Faust, Eric Foner and Gordon S. Wood. Mr. Farrell, a ...

Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and professor of history at Brown University. His books ... Adams had little confidence in democracy and the virtue of people, and consequently he was willing to borrow some of the elements of the English monarchy to offset the populism of American ...

Sick Of Partisan Politics? Brown Historian Says Founding Fathers Saw It Coming In New Book. By Scott MacKay • Feb 27, 2018 ... But believe it or not, this is not the most divisive era in American politics, at least not according to historian Gordon Wood. He joins Rhode Island Public Radio's Political Analyst Scott MacKay.

Award-winning historian, author and Brown University professor Gordon S. Wood, joins Molly O'Brien on Tuesday's GoLocal LIVE to discuss his book “Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson” and the relationship between the two notable men. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author will talk about ...

In this Feb. 14, 2018 photo, India Spartz, left, head of special collections and archives at Union College, and librarian John Myers look at an old almanac from the college archives in Schenectady, N.Y. The almanac was found to contain a lock of George Washington's hair that had been a gift to James A.

There is consensus among scholars that Jefferson was a relatively unflinching optimist, whose faith in the eventual success in government of and for the people never wavered. Gordon Wood in “Thomas Jefferson in His Time,” typifies that sentiment. “No one of the Framing a Legend: Exposing the Distorted ...

Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author. The protests against the Stamp Act in 1765, which inevitably ... to protest the oppression of more than 1 billion people. Using only his body, he managed to stop an armored tank column and, even if for a moment, a brutal crackdown on freedom and democracy.

Keynote speaker, historian and author Gordon S. Wood and Alva O. Way professor emeritus of history at Brown University will offer a lecture on John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the arts. Attendees also have the opportunity to register for private tours of historic homes throughout Greater Williamsburg ...

Jefferson had a romantic faith in democracy and the wisdom of ordinary people; Adams predicted that “democracy will infallibly destroy all civilization.” Jefferson's view was partly self-serving. “The leadership of the Republican Party, which is the popular party, is Southern slaveholders,” Mr. Wood says.

Good evening, listeners! We have a special holiday treat for you this week, as host Richard Aldous closes out the year by taking a look back at some of our favorite interviews from 2017. First up, we go back just a few weeks ago to Gordon Wood, historian and the Alva O. Way University Professor and ...

The relationship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams largely shaped the course of the newly-formed United States of America. Historian Gordon Wood examined this relationship and its effect on America's future in his new book “Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.” Last week ...

Good evening listeners, and Happy Thanksgiving! We have a special treat for you this week, as host Richard Aldous speaks with Gordon Wood about his new book, Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Gordon Wood is an acclaimed author, historian, and the Alva O. Way University ...

Gordon S. Wood, the Alva O. Way university professor at Brown, who has been writing history as long as Jefferson and Adams knew each other, examines their .... The virtual universality of the moral sense made democracy practical, since everyone had the capacity to make the most important judgments.

In “Friends Divided,” Gordon S. Wood, a professor at Brown University and our finest historian of 18th-century America, provides a splendid account of the improbable friendship, estrangement and reconciliation between Adams, an irascible, ironic, hypersensitive middle-class New England lawyer, and ...