A fresh, lucid distillation of Wood’s vast learning about the origins of American government.
The Pulitzer and Bancroft winner delivers another masterful book of Revolutionary War–era history.
No historian knows more about the founding years of the U.S. than Wood. In his latest, he once again demonstrates his characteristic clarity in an examination of the origins and growth of American constitutional principles from the Stamp Act crisis of 1765 into the 19th century, “the most creative period of constitutionalism in American history and one of the most creative in modern Western history.” This introduction to the formative half-century of American history maintains a taut focus on the nation’s early constitutional development. While that emphasis comes at the cost of attention to social realities, the author sharply clarifies the stages that the founding generation went through to create their governments and the struggles to understand what they were doing. To Wood, American’s growing realization during and after the Revolution that they had to discard the Articles of Confederation for a new frame of government constituted “a momentous change, and one not at all anticipated in 1776.” As the author notes, it created “a radically new government altogether—one that utterly transformed the structure of central authority.” In what’s likely to be the most controversial aspect of the book, Wood finds the origins of this transformation not in an economic and social crisis prior to 1787 but rather in the maturation of American constitutional thought. The author shows that the Constitution didn’t arise out of social and economic turmoil; instead, it emerged from constitutional, legal, and structural realities as well as innovative thought. Wood’s argument is the most potent in the brilliant two chapters on the judiciary and the distinction between public and private spheres of life. While he may receive criticism for overlooking much of the social and cultural history produced by other historians, no one will be able to ignore the power of his arguments.
A fresh, lucid distillation of Wood’s vast learning about the origins of American government.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-19-754691-8
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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