"One area where Wood makes a particularly noteworthy contribution is in tracing the surprise development of America’s democratic identity. 'Surprise' is the word. Too often forgotten is the fact that America’s patrician founders harbored great fears about the 'excesses of democracy.' Though the new country was to be a daring trial in self-government, it was expected to be guided less by egalitarian impulses than by the aristocratic beliefs of well-bred gentlemen. That day, however, was quickly waning."
In The New York Times, Jay Winik reviews Gordon Wood's Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815.
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