On Empire of Liberty
Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Cloth.
This is one of those books that makes you feel smarter. Increasing democratization, fiery battles between Founding Fathers, religion, slavery, sectionalism, women’s rights, the War of 1812, the first stirrings of industrialization, Barbary Wars, the earliest aspects of Western expansion, and the emergence of judicial supremacy. It’s all here, and it’s beautifully written. I’m super excited to get started on the next volume, as this was a marked increase in quality from The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789—the thematic breakdown made it all worthwhile.