NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Gordon S. Wood, the eminent and prolific scholar who forged a highly influential and of the country鈥檚 early years of independence through such prize-winning works as 鈥淭he Creation of the American Republic鈥� and 鈥淭he Radicalism of the American Revolution,鈥� has died. He was 92.
Wood, a professor emeritus at Brown University, died Sunday after being struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot in East Providence, Rhode Island, according to police.
Author of dozens of books and essays, Wood never gained the mass audience of historians like and , but his findings became standard references for discussions about and the legacy of the revolution. Many peers regarded the white-haired, mild-looking Wood as the embodiment of the learned, traditional historian, guided by facts rather than ideology.
In 2011, President Barack Obama presented him a National Humanities Medal 鈥渇or scholarship that provides insight into the founding of the nation and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.鈥�
In recent years, younger academics increasingly alleged that Wood was too well-established, the epitome of the old-school historian who minimized the lives of slaves, women and Indigenous people. John L. Brooke, a history professor at Ohio State University, would fault him for 鈥渁 distinct avoidance of interpretative paradox and complexity,鈥� even as he cited Wood鈥檚 鈥渟cale and scholarly enterprise.鈥�
His success was immediate and lasting. His first book, 鈥淭he Creation of the American Republic,鈥� won the Bancroft Prize in 1970 and lived on with generations of students who embraced and contended with Wood鈥檚 findings that the Constitution was unintentionally subversive, a document devised by elites that led to 鈥渢he destruction of the very social world they had sought to maintain.鈥�
His 鈥淭he Radicalism of the American Revolution鈥� won the Pulitzer in 1993 and the epic 鈥淓mpire of Liberty鈥� was a finalist in 2009.
Wood did welcome scholarly breakthroughs, notably Annette Gordon-Reed鈥檚 鈥減ersuasive contextual case鈥� that the enslaved Sally Hemings bore some of Thomas Jefferson鈥檚 children. In 鈥淓mpire of Liberty,鈥� which covered the years 1789 to 1815, he included lengthy passages on slavery and called it a cancer 鈥渆ating away at the message of liberty and equality.鈥�
At other times, Wood angrily resisted new approaches. He was a prominent critic of The New York Times鈥� Pulitzer Prize winning and its contention 鈥� later amended 鈥� that maintaining slavery was a key motivation for the American Revolution. He alleged that the project encouraged a sense 鈥渧ictimhood鈥� and feeling 鈥渁ggrieved,鈥� even as he acknowledged he hadn鈥檛 read most of it. He would counter that the founders, even such plantation owners as Jefferson and , believed 鈥� mistakenly 鈥� that slavery would die a natural death and the revolution itself energized the American abolitionist movement.
鈥淲e all want justice, but not at the expense of truth,鈥� he wrote in 2019, adding, in a widely disputed statement, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know of any colonist who said that they wanted independence in order to preserve their slaves.鈥�
Wood was born into history: His hometown, Concord, Massachusetts, had been the residence of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Louisa May Alcott, among others. But his passion for the subject he later mastered did not arise until college. Wood found his high school history education unbearable, suffering through classes in which the teacher simply read from a textbook.
Wood did admire his Latin instructor, who encouraged him to attend Tufts University, from which he graduated summa cum laude. He received a master鈥檚 and Ph.D. from Harvard University and studied under a celebrated Revolutionary War historian Bernard Bailyn, whose documentation of the intellectual forces behind independence in his landmark 鈥淭he Ideological Origins of the American Revolution鈥� Wood would build upon in 鈥淭he Creation of the American Republic.鈥�
In his introduction to 鈥淭he Idea of America,鈥� published in 2011, Wood looked back on his own work and the evolution of scholarship in his lifetime. He noted the many errors of the country鈥檚 founders but warned against scolding historical figures because of mistakes which seem obvious now, what he and others call 鈥淧resentism.鈥�
鈥淭he drama, indeed the tragedy of history, comes from our understanding of the tension that existed between the conscious wills and intentions of the participants in the past and the underlying conditions that constrained their actions and shaped their future,鈥� he wrote.
鈥淚f the study of history teaches anything, it teaches us the limitations of life. It ought to produce prudence and humility.鈥�
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Associated Press writer Michael Casey contributed to this report from Boston.
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