Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Wood Speaks at Wyant Lecture Series
November 02, 2007
Gordon Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History at Brown University, brought his knowledge of the Founding Fathers to the most recent installment of the Wyant Lecture Series on November 1st. The 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner for history for his book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood explained his thoughts regarding "What Made the Founders Different?" to an audience in the Janet M. Daley Library Lecture Hall.
In his discussion, which was influenced by his most recent work, Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founding Fathers Different, Wood investigated the imposing awe and veneration that surrounds the political figures still to this day, describing how Americans, compared to their counterparts around the world, tend to hold their Forefathers in higher regard.
"No other major nation honors its past historical characters in quite the way we do," he said. "People have a special need for these men in the here and now and I wonder why this is so."
Wood believes interest in the Fathers has much to do with their political capacity, as their efforts so many centuries ago established what he referred to as "a gold standard for politics." In addition, because Americans can connect their national identity so clearly to these men, there tends to be more buildup surrounding them, much more in comparison to other countries in which origins are either "taken for granted" or less defined.
"We became a nation in 1776 and thus in order to know who we are, we need to know who the founders are," said Wood. "They were an incomparable generation. The greatest in our history."
Humble origins played a significant role in differentiating the Forefathers in Wood's eyes as well, an attribute among the men that he felt afforded them exceptional liberty in their formation of a new nation. Their eagerness to prove themselves and their standing was a common feeling throughout the group, with the lone exception being Aaron Burr, the third Vice President of the United States. The son of Aaron Burr, Sr., the second President of Princeton University, Burr was the only leader linked by blood to a "respectable" family, a quality Wood feels amplifies the figure's diminished reverence in American history.
"Aaron Burr had all the characteristics of being great, but something set his character apart from his fellow Founders," he said. "Unlike the other revolutionary figures, he never felt he had to earn his aristocratic status. He took his status for granted and [because of this] his behavior is different from the others, his correspondence is different as well. …Burr is the exception to the rule."
For Wood, the Founding Fathers represent a generation of leaders that will never be replicated. Although far from perfect in his mind ("as great as they were, they were not demigods, or democrats either, certainly not in a contemporary view"), reproducing their level of insight used in the development of the United States is a quality he expects history to only witness once.
"The Founders succeeded too well in creating democracy," he said. "We will not see their like again."