Gordon Wood Speaks in Worcester, 15 April

On Thursday, 15 April, at 7:30 P.M. the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester will present a public program featuring historian Gordon Wood. He’ll discuss his new book Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, which examines covers the American government from its start to the end of the War of 1812. The event description says:

The founders of the nation had high hopes for the future of the nation, but few of their dreams worked quite as they expected. They hated political parties, but parties nonetheless emerged along with a vibrant and raucous popular democracy dominated by the “middling sorts” composed of merchants, artisans, and entrepreneurs with a fierce belief in equality. While many of the founders hoped to eventually abolish slavery, by 1815 the institution was stronger than ever and starting to expand westward. These are just a few of the themes that Professor Wood explores as he describes this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.

Wood is a professor emeritus at Brown and is one of the unofficial “deans” of early American history overall. His previous books include The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787; The Radicalism of the American Revolution; and The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin.