Gordon Wood's 'Two Seconds of Fame' and a Historic Legacy - Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore, Guest MINDSETTER™

Gordon Wood's 'Two Seconds of Fame' and a Historic Legacy - Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore, Guest MINDSETTER™

Gordon Wood claimed that being mentioned by Matt Damon’s character in the famous bar scene in Good Will Hunting was his two seconds of fame and that “more kids know about that than any of the books I have written,” like his seminal works Creation of the American Republic (1969) and The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992). But, generations of historians, history teachers like me, and millions of Americans were, whether they knew it or not, taught to think about America’s origin story through the historiographic perspective of Gordon Wood. His untimely death has prompted me to reflect on his incredible legacy.

 

Wood believed deeply that the American Revolution was the most important event in American history because it was fought and won on behalf of our highest aspirations and most noble values. The most important of these values was the radical idea of equality, which he believed was the single most transformational force in the story of America and, more broadly, in the story of the world in the years after the American Revolution.

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It’s important to point out that Wood did not dismiss the flaws, hypocrisy, and sobering realities of early American history. He only suggested that those flaws and hypocrisies didn’t diminish the democratic and egalitarian ideals that gave the nation and the American people the capacity to build a more perfect union.

 

Anyone who has heard me speak about the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence in my role as the Chair of the RI250 Commission can certainly hear the influence of Wood coming through in my remarks and observations. The trained ear picks up on it immediately.

 

Thousands of East Providence High School students who were assigned to my survey and advanced placement classes in American history over the course of 27 years were introduced to Wood, either directly or indirectly, through his books and essays I read, his lectures and panel discussions I had the privilege to attend, and his many interviews I watched from afar.

 

I think there is great work that presents a view of the nation’s founding that is much different than Wood’s, and I always presented my Advanced Placement students with varied historiography to spark discussion and critical thinking. But, there is no denying the incredible influence that Gordon Wood has had in capturing the story of America in ways that no one has before or since.

 

America will miss Gordon Wood, especially this year, the year of the nation’s Semiquincentennial, when we are having a national conversation about our origin story – a story he so expertly helped write.