The Radicalism of the American Revolution
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''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' is a nonfiction book by historian
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
, published by
Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random ...
as a paperback in 1993. The first printing of the hardcover edition notes a publication date of December 1991. In the book, Wood explores the radical character of the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. The book was awarded the 1993
Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...
.
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
attempted to reconcile his previous arguments in ''The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787'', with myriad analytical categories, especially emotions, in this book. Wood's contentions remained the same from his revised dissertation ''sans'' the extensive foray into 1776-87 state constitutionalism. Wood divided the narrative into three parts: monarchy, republicanism, and democracy.


Background

Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
ended ''The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787'', a 1969 book based on a dissertation supervised by Bernard Bailyn, with the "End of Classical Politics." Wood argued that, in the wake of the last federalist rebuttal during the ratification debates, "the stability of government...now depended upon the prevention of the various social interests from incorporating themselves too firmly in the government. Institutional or governmental politics was thus abstracted in a curious way from its former associations with the society...This revolution marked an end of the classical conception of politics." The first section of the book explored how and why "the colonists" appropriated "Whig" (or "neo-Harringtonian") "ideals" of "liberty," which ultimately came to represent an ontological singularity of "personal liberty" and "public liberty" as well as representation by a "natural aristocracy." By the last chapter of the book, Wood declared that "public or political liberty, the right of the people to share in the government—lost its significance for a system in which the people participated throughout. The liberty that was now emphasized was personal or private... hey began toregard public and private liberty as antagonistic rather than complementary...Such a total grounding of government in self-interest and consent had made old-fashioned popular revolutions obsolete." In 1992, as
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
's ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' first circulated among scholars, historian Daniel T. Rodgers attempted to define the parameters of the debates launched by '' The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution'' and ''Creation of the American Republic''. Rodgers posited periodization as the source of much controversy between what he deemed adherents of "Harvard republicanism" and proponents of "St. Louis republicanism." In the context of ''The Creation of the American Republic'', "when Wood turned to the early national period he found a society dancing feverishly to the tune of 'modern American liberalism.' The mark of St. Louis republicanism, by contrast, was a reluctance to date the 'end of classical politics' as early as Wood had put it." As a result of these fractious disputes, "RepublicanismH collapsed all at once in a clatter of constitutional argument. RepublicanismS staggered on to a slower death." His review essay did not include the extended periodization in ''Radicalism''. Wood clarified the vaunted and maligned "End of Classical Politics" in a new preface to his 1969 study. First, he reminded readers, "it is important to remember that the boxlike categories of 'republicanism' and 'liberalism' are essentially the inventions of us historians." In Wood's estimation, the bifurcation of "Harvard republicanism" and "St. Louis republicanism" had been premised on "the mistaken notion that one set of ideas simply replaced another ''en bloc''." He sought to mitigate scholarly conflicts by curbing meanings ascribed to this phrase: "after the debates and discoveries of 1787-88 most Americans (John Adams was a conspicuous exception) more or less ceased talking about politics in the way theorists since Aristotle had—as a maneuvering and mixing of three social entities or forms of government onarchy, lords, commons€”and began talking about politics in recognizably modern ways—as a competition among interests or parties in the society for control of a quasi-autonomous state...Cultural changes of that magnitude do not take place in such a neat and sudden manner. Republicanism was indeed gradually transformed into something we call liberalism, but in subtle and complicated ways that kept many republican sentiments alive."


Synopsis

Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
argued in ''Radicalism'' that "in this classical republican tradition our modern distinction between positive and negative liberties was not yet clearly perceived, and the two forms of liberty were still often seen as one." Wood premised this concluding argument with the notion that "public or political liberty---or what we now call positive liberty---meant participation in government. And this political liberty in turn provided the means by which the personal liberty and private rights of the individual---what we today call negative liberty---were protected." Wood's "classical republican tradition" rooted "virtue" in "liberty and independence." If such "disinterestedness" in government "was based on liberty and independence, then it followed that only autonomous individuals free from any ties of interest and paid by no master were qualified to be citizens. Jefferson and many other republican idealists hoped that all ordinary yeoman farmers who owned their own land...would be independent and free enough of pecuniary temptations and marketplace interests to be virtuous." Still, for many "republican idealists" in "monarchical society," a "disinterested leadership could only be located among the landed gentry whose income erivedfrom the rents of tenants." Yet, most "merchants active in their businesses" sought to attain "wealth and leisure sufficient to avoid any day-to-day involvement in their businesses." The "jealousy and suspicion" of these "republican idealists" were "necessary evils to offset" monarchical "power." In addition, their "world" still seemed "small and intimate enough to hold particular men morally responsible for all that occurred within it. Which is why the colonists especially were quick to explain a concatenation of events as caused by conspiracy." The Revolution also sparked unresolved "ideological" debates over the socioeconomic consequences of the "commercial nature of real estate." Wood explained that "virtue became identified with decency" and was "soft and feminized." Ideas of "classical virtue had flowed from the citizen's participation in politics...But modern virtue flowed from the citizen's participation in society, not in government, which the liberal-minded increasingly saw as the principal source of the evils of the world." During the American Revolution, "some now argued that even commerce, that traditional enemy of classical virtue, was in fact a source of modern virtue." Wood even described this "domestication of virtue" as "progressive" and emphasized that it "helped reconcile classical republicanism liberty"with modernity and commerce."
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
cast early Federalism as a response to
Anti-Federalist Anti-Federalism was a late-18th century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. The previous constitution, called the Articles of Con ...
questions regarding the very notion of an expansive " heUnited States" and the solecism ''imperium-in-imperio'', sovereignty-within-sovereignty.
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
and his Federalists offered a last rebuttal: the locus of "power," sovereignty, would be vested in "the people," not in organs of government. In his earlier dissertation, Wood described the Federalist rebuttal as "disingenuous." He also previously described this "mutuality of interests" as generating a crucible for "the alliance of power and liberty." In an "American science of politics," electoral campaigns sought to cultivate reflective constituent "interests" for refractive disinterested officeholding that, in turn, partially attempted to "umpire" and encompass these "interests." For Federalists, the latter included, and also checked, the former. Government harnessed "interests," which transformed "positive liberty" into, for instance, the United States
public interest The public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. Overview Economist Lok Sang Ho in his ''Public Policy and the Public Interest'' argues that the public interest must be assessed impartially and, therefor ...
, sustained by "patrician" disinterestedness. Wood held that the idea of government officials as "umpires" for "republican liberty" was soon discarded. "By the late 1780s," Wood mused, "many of the younger revolutionary leaders like
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
were willing to confront the reality of interests in America," exemplified by Madison's ''
Federalist No. 10 Federalist No. 10 is an essay written by James Madison as the tenth of '' The Federalist Papers'', a series of essays initiated by Alexander Hamilton arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. Published on November 22, 178 ...
''. The federal government became a " 'disinterested and dispassionate umpire in disputes between different passions and interests in the State.' " Even with plans to expand public education, potential officeholders, more than voters, needed to become "liberally educated and cosmopolitan enough to have the breadth of perspective to comprehend all the different interests in society." In the writings of framers and Federalists alike, there was a much higher probability that a university legal education or apprenticeship for
reading law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under th ...
, out of all the "learned professions," would win the electoral day. Anti-Federalists pointed out that the profits derived from litigation, even if supplemented by ''pro bono'' work, turned "lawyers into tradesmen or artisans" in an interests-based political economy. Not so, rejoined Wood's Alexander Hamilton: "being a lawyer was not an occupation and different from other profit-making activities." The "learned professions" formed " 'no distinct interest in society' and thus were best suited to be ''elected'' by their constituents. They...will be most likely be an 'impartial arbiter' among the diverse interests and occupations of the society." In
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
's appraisal, both Federalists and Anti-Federalists defined U.S. actual representation against British
virtual representation Virtual representation was the idea that the members of Parliament, including the Lords and the Crown-in-Parliament, reserved the right to speak for the interests of all British subjects, rather than for the interests of only the district that ele ...
. Both Federalists and Anti-Federalists concurred that elections, premised on courting and cultivating voter reflective "interests," propelled candidates into public office. Both Federalists and Anti-Federalists ultimately countenanced a surplus of such candidates in extended electoral spheres, which James Madison conjectured increased campaign competition and the likelihood that anxious elected delegates, despite serving in faraway eighteenth-century federal seats, would constantly clamor to demonstrate representation of the reflective "interests" of constituents. In ''
Federalist No. 10 Federalist No. 10 is an essay written by James Madison as the tenth of '' The Federalist Papers'', a series of essays initiated by Alexander Hamilton arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. Published on November 22, 178 ...
'', Madison argued that refractive representation defined
republics A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...
, yet attempted to address in-person reflective potentials of
pure democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are represen ...
. Madison's conclusions, in Wood's interpretation, partially signified interests-based liberal representative democracy ''without'' a signifier for representative democracy. Wood argued that Federalist promotion of disinterested patrician "umpires" refracted representation in order to check, rather than eclipse, interests-based reflective representation in an "American science of politics."
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
reiterated, in an oft-quoted passage from '' Federalist No. 56'', that "it is a sound and important principle that the representative ought to be acquainted with the interests and circumstances of his constituents. But this principle can extend no further than to those circumstances and interests to which the authority and care of the representative relate." The crux of the matter, according to Wood in both ''Radicalism'' and his previous "Interests and Disinterestedness in the Making of the Constitution" (1987), was the fulfillment of ''both'' "patrician" refractive disinterestedness and representative extension of categorical "authority" over myriad "interests," such as electoral district boundaries, income, vocation, commerce, urban labor, etc., that is, how representatives can reflectively relate to their constituents. Also, Madison expressed concerns about government by the "few" as well as, in contradistinction, government by the "many." In writing '' Federalist No. 62'', for instance, Madison grew skeptical of any fiscal "regulation" because, in a counterintuitive fashion, "every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many." Absent from Wood's narrative was
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
's own possible 1787-88 reflective "interests" and any immediate consequences of Madison's three-fifths ratio. At any rate, Federalists and Anti-Federalists diverged over their predictions for which candidates ''would'', and even ''should'', most frequently win in federal ''elections''. They also disagreed over ''how'' these delegates enacted federalism and exactly ''what'' these delegates did in the federal Capitol. For proponents of Constitutional ratification, the crucial tenet in understanding how Federalist officeholders could persist as disinterested refractive "umpires" and reflective representatives of electoral districts, particularly within an interests-based political economy, was "a notion that has carried into our own time---that lawyers and other professionals are somehow free of the marketplace, are less selfish and interested and therefore better equipped for political leadership and disinterested decision-making than merchants and businessmen." Again, Federalists believed that "lawyers," despite having "to live off 'the hard earned profits of the law,' " were "somehow free of the marketplace" and "less selfish and interested." These "lawyers," and similar practitioners of "learned professions" with "proprietary wealth" for education, proved "natural" vessels to maintain the
pre-Socratic Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of thes ...
unity of opposites The unity of opposites is the central category of dialectics, said to be related to the notion of non-duality in a deep sense.
in Wood's "the ideas, the rhetoric" of "republican liberty" (within a variety of visual, emotional, etc., significations), especially during the shift to liberal representative democracy, in part only ''introduced'' by
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
due to persistent state property requirements for voting. In the "liberal" keys that sounded
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
's rhapsody of "republican liberty," Federalist representatives were indeed "liberally educated and cosmopolitan enough to have the breadth of perspective to comprehend all the different interests in society." The future surprisingly lay not with the triumphant
Federalists The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves ''Federalists''. History Europe federation In Europe, proponents of de ...
in
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
's story. In
Anti-Federalist Anti-Federalism was a late-18th century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. The previous constitution, called the Articles of Con ...
disquisitions, Wood explained, "society" reflected "a heterogenous mixture of 'many different classes or orders of people, Merchants, Farmers, Planters, Mechanics, and Gentry or wealthy Men'...'Lawyers and planters,' whatever their genteel pretensions, could never be 'adequate judges of tradesmen's concerns.' The occupations and interests of the society were so diverse and discrete that only individuals sharing a particular occupation or interest could speak for that occupation or interest. It was foolish to tell people that they ought to overlook their local interests when local interests were all there really were." The Anti-Federalists who "lost the battle over the Constitution" believed that "only an explicit form of representation that allowed Germans, Baptists, artisans, farmers, and so on each to send delegates of its own kind into the political arena could embody the democratic particularism of the emerging society of the early Republic. Momentous consequences eventually flowed from these Anti-Federalist arguments. In these populist Anti-Federalist calls for the most explicit form of representation possible, and not in Madison's ''
Federalist No. 10 Federalist No. 10 is an essay written by James Madison as the tenth of '' The Federalist Papers'', a series of essays initiated by Alexander Hamilton arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. Published on November 22, 178 ...
'', lay the real origins of American pluralism and American interest-group politics. The grass-roots Anti-Federalists concluded that, given the variety of competing interests and the fact that all people had interests, the only way for a person to be fairly and accurately represented in government was to have someone like himself with his same interests speak for him; no one else could be trusted to do so. Ultimately, the logic of this conception of actual representation determined that no one could be represented in government unless he had the right to vote. The interests of a person were so particular, so personal, that only by exercising the ballot could he protect and promote his interests. Election in America became the sole criterion for representation. Insofar as American politics became localist and dominated by interest groups and calls for extended suffrage, the Anti-Federalists prepared the way."
Gordon S. Wood Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
concluded ''Radicalism'' with the rise of a fledgling
Jacksonian democracy Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, And ...
, contending that voters appropriated the "Federalist Persuasion" of an "interests"-based
popular sovereignty Popular sovereignty is the principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. Popular sovereignty, being a principle, does not imply any ...
("Chapter 14: Interests") and "celebration of commerce" ("Chapter 18: The Celebration of Commerce"), much to the chagrin of many, but by no means all, of the former persuaders in their twilight years. The late eighteenth-century idea of the "equality" of sensations and benevolent "feeling," bestowed on a "moral" humanity by the deistic "Creator," gave rise to the idea of "equality" ("Chapter 13: Equality") of opportunity in political economy. These notions of "equality" potentially included diverse segments of "society," but interpretations by the historical actors featured in the book neither necessarily expanded bodies politic, nor civil government, much past self-described "white males." In an oft-quoted passage, Wood observed that "government officials were no longer to play the role of umpire; they were no longer to stand above the competing interests of the marketplace and make disinterested, impartial judgements about what was good for the whole society. Elected officials were to bring the partial, local interests of the society, and sometimes even their own interests, right into the workings of government. Partisanship and parties became legitimate activities in politics. And all adult white males, regardless of their property holdings of their independence, were to have the right to vote. By 1825 every state but Rhode Island, Virginia, and Louisiana had achieved universal white manhood suffrage." This appropriation nevertheless proved a cornerstone for Wood's ultimate argument that "the Revolution was the most radical and most far-reaching event in American history."


Reception


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radicalism of the American Revolution, The 1993 non-fiction books 20th-century history books History books about the American Revolution Pulitzer Prize for History-winning works Vintage Books books