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

by Wood, Gordon S.

• ISBN13: 9780199832460
• ISBN10: 0199832463
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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, twoNew York Timesbestsellers, 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 aNew York TimesNotable Book,Empire of Libertyoffers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.

Author Biography

Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor 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.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	p. xi
Editor's Introduction	p. xiii
Abbreviations Used in Citations	p. xvii
Introduction: Rip Van Winkle's America	p. 1
Experiment in Republicanism	p. 5
A Monarchical Republic	p. 53
The Federalist Program	p. 95
The Emergence of the Jeffersonian Republican Party	p. 140
The French Revolution in America	p. 174
John Adams and the Few and the Many	p. 209
The Crisis of 1798-1799	p. 239
The Jeffersonian Revolution of 1800	p. 276
Republican Society	p. 315
The Jeffersonian West	p. 357
Law and an Independent Judiciary	p. 400
Chief Justice John Marshall and the Origins of Judicial Review	p. 433
Republican Reforms	p. 469
Between Slavery and Freedom	p. 508
The Rising Glory of America	p. 543
Republican Religion	p. 576
Republican Diplomacy	p. 620
The War of 1812	p. 659
A World Within Themselves	p. 701
Bibliographical Essay	p. 739
Index	p. 753
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