I first met Gordon Wood in the late 1980s, when I was a graduate student, participating in a roundtable sponsored by the Institute for the Humanities, an organization now based at George Mason University and dedicated to exploring ideas of freedom and open societies. For the young scholar, it was an important occasion to bring together some of the most prominent scholars of American history. Two people, Gordon Wood and Jack Greene, particularly stood out for their obvious interest in the work of young historians.
Our discussion spanned the nature of historical context, the place of biographical evidence in interpreting the past, and techniques for linking analysis and narrative. I have never forgotten that exchange. His enthusiasm for the subject and his generosity toward me, then a mere novice, drew me into questions that have held my attention ever since. I later learned that Wood and Greene were long-time friends, and their example demonstrated what friendship among scholars committed to historical understanding means, especially when differences of opinion are not just acknowledged but welcomed in the pursuit of truth.
Years later, when I joined the Educational Foundation, where I would spend most of my professional life, I was very happy to continue working with both academics. Each has long been involved with the Freedom Fund in various capacities: as a conference participant, director, and later book editor.
Wood’s early focus on the nation’s founding naturally gravitated toward the Liberty Fund’s bicentennial program on the creation and ratification of the Constitution, organized by two other leading political theorists of the time, Eugene Miller and William Allen. In these seminars, Wood challenged long-held liberal Lockean interpretations of the American experiment and became a major voice promoting the republican insights of Harvard University leader Bernard Bailin.
That interpretive framework was first developed in The Founding of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969), which placed a classical republican understanding at the center of debates about constitution-making. From that point on, Wood’s scholarship and work at the Freedom Fund proceeded in parallel, returning again and again to key themes of the American political tradition.
Wood later considered the liberal and democratic challenges to republicanism in Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992) and the eventual ascendancy of republicanism in the early republic in Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009). One of the enduring intellectual tensions he left in later thinking was the emergence of a liberal democratic culture within an essentially classical republican constitutional order. Although these three books are usually recognized as Wood’s seminal contributions to the field, they are far from his only contributions. He has also published numerous books and acclaimed studies, including The American Idea: Reflections on the Birth of the United States (2011), Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (2017), and Power and Freedom: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution (2021).
In recognition of these accomplishments, Mr. Wood received numerous honors, including the Bancroft Prize in 1970, the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, and the National Humanities Medal in 2010. The Freedom Fund also named Mr. Wood the inaugural recipient of the George F. Will Award in 2024, honoring his lifelong contributions to the understanding of American thought and institutions.
As the country approaches 500 years since its declaration of independence, the effort continues.
Wood had already been central to the initial planning of the foundation’s program to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence, with several online and in-person appearances scheduled, including a program with longtime friend, fellow historian and interlocutor Jack Greene. These efforts were aimed at drawing on Wood’s vast knowledge and understanding and deepening the intellectual engagement of a younger generation of scholars entering the ranks of teachers and faculty.
Those programs will continue as he had hoped, but in that effort there will be a deep void that cannot now be filled. We will miss his undiminished charm, generosity of spirit, and infectious curiosity that made every investigation into the past an adventure rather than a mere scientific undertaking.
Our hearts and thoughts are with his family, friends and students.
Hans Eicholz is a senior researcher at Liberty Fund.
