The American Revolution Gordon Wood Summary

The Revolution of America was thought of as a radical, but also social change as the Americans were seeking their own revolution and sense of acceptance in this New World. The Revolutionary War in the 1770’s brought new light to the American colonies and defined a purpose for what America would become in the coming years, as a country. This revolution, unlike any other was thought of as an intellectual, as well as traditional revelation that brought together an abundance of people, who were searching for a common good. It was a time of political change and a time in which, a new basic structure was being brought to America from the British. In The American Revolution by Gordon Wood, he creates an argument based around the center of America …show more content…
It was a primitive time in the lives of these individuals who were seeking freedom and whose ultimate goal would soon be a Declaration of Independence. As John Adams would state, the revolution was a time of change “in the minds and hearts of the people,” and he is exactly right when making that statement as Wood describes them as transforming into a more liberal democratic society (Wood 3). The changes that came with this revolution were of the utmost importance, as the Americans had a divine vision of what they wanted their future to look like and saw it being able to lead people to far places with the arts and sciences that would emerge from this social movement. This was an earth-shaking event for most and it promised that the “perishing World . . . a new World, a young World . . . all in the fair Bloom of Piety” would be created (Wood 4). An example in which this event occurred is in the late seventeenth centuries when the British Empire and various places in Europe began to settle in the colonies and the land because of the expanding authority over these …show more content…
The two main concerns of this time were that the parliamentary system was becoming unbalanced, as well as the concern of taxation on the colonies without consent from them. The British began challenging the laws that were in place and the fight for independence began to bloom with the help of boycotts and revolts. The first government reform began with the Proclamation of 1763, in which it created three new governments. The most shocking and never forgotten example that brought light to the governmental views was the Stamp Act of 1764, where a crisis broke out, but also unified America like no other event had before. According to Wood, “it stimulated bold political and constitutional writings throughout the colonies, deepened the colonists’ political consciousness, and produced new forms of organized popular resistance” (Wood 30). After this incident and many more to come in the future, the American political system was forever changed and parliament was revamped for the