The Idea Of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States

Reflections on the Birth of the United States

Because the U.S. began as an idea, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood believes that the American Revolution is the most important event in our history, bar none. American identity is not based on any universally shared heritage, so we have had to return to our nation’s founding to understand who we are.

Wood explores the ideological origins of the revolution’s attempts to forge an American democracy, and traces the origins of American exceptionalism. What may simply seem like audacity now was considered radical in the 18th century.