The Purpose of the Past, Gordon S. Wood
The Purpose of the Past, Gordon S. Wood
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The Purpose of the Past
Reflections on the Uses of History

Author: Gordon S. Wood

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Unabridged: 10 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/13/2008

Categories: Nonfiction, History

Synopsis

History is to society what memory is to the individual. Without it, we dont know who we are and we cant make wise decisions about our future. But while the nature of memory is constant, the nature of history has changed radically over the past forty years. In The Purpose of the Past, historian Gordon S. Wood examines this sea change in his field through consideration of some of its most important historians and their works. He offers wonderful insight into what great historians do, how they can stumble, and what strains of thought have dominated the marketplace of ideas in historical scholarship. The result is a history of American history, as well as an argument for its ongoing necessity. A commanding assessment of the field by one of its masters, The Purpose of the Past will enlarge every readers capacity to appreciate history.

About Gordon S. Wood

Gordon S. Wood, the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University, received his A.B. from Tufts University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. His 1970 book The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 was nominated for the National Book Award and received the Bancroft and John H. Dunning Prizes. In 1993 he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Gordon lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Reviews

Goodreads review by robin

History And Reviewing I always enjoy and learn from the writings of American historian Gordon Wood. After reading Wood's most recent books, his two-volume edition of John Adams' "Revolutionary Writings" for the Library of America, and his new volume of essays on the importance of ideas to the America......more

Goodreads review by brian

gordon wood is the greatest living historian and one of the top living essayists. for some reason there’s a hardcover version on amazon for $18 and then the same edition for only $6.99. [URL not allowed]-Past-Re... order this! trust me. if you’ve ever wondered about the relative nature of......more

Goodreads review by Melissa

This is a volume of reviews, all previously published in the New York Review of Books and another magazine, of books on American history. Its author is a prominent historian in his own right, and the pleasure of the read is both in the insightful historiography and in the historical content. Like re......more

Goodreads review by Brian

By all standards, this really should be a dry and dusty tome. It's a collection of book reviews by eminent early American historian Gordon S. Wood. What this book does however is display the various theoretical and philosophically lenses used to analyze history in the past 30 years. It's an excellen......more

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