Gordon Wood, Architect of the Revolution-Era Narrative, Dies at 92

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Gordon S. Wood, a Brown University professor whose reinterpretation of the American Revolution emphasized radical Enlightenment ideas and the making of a modern republic, died on June 7 at 92 after being struck by a car in East Providence. His landmark works, including The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969) and The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992), helped reshape national identity and the understanding of equality, liberty, and governance. Wood taught at Brown from 1969 to 2008 and earned numerous honors, such as the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft and Dunning Prizes, and the National Humanities Medal (2011). He is survived by his wife Louise, daughters Amy and Elizabeth, son Christopher, five grandsons, and a great-granddaughter; Amy Wood is also a historian. His 2021 book was Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution.