Gordon S. Wood, the preeminent historian of the American Revolution, was fatally struck by a car in an East Providence, Rhode Island, supermarket parking lot on June 7. Wood was 92, and his mind seemed as lively as ever. Decades of conversations in print between Wood and Claremont scholars about the meaning of the American Revolution can help us commemorate this 250th anniversary and honor the memory of a great student and teacher of the subject.
On the occasion of the bicentennial of the Constitution, almost 40 years ago, Wood wrote a substantial essay in The New York Review of Books (quoting the young Charles Kesler among many other noted scholars) on how “Straussians” were setting the agenda for commemorating the Constitution. His main objection to the Straussians was the flipside of the Straussians’ main objection to him. The Straussians dared to assume that it was possible that the founders meant to be guided by a standard of human conduct, discernible by reason and applicable to all human beings everywhere and always, that is independent of human convention. For Wood, there is no such thing. The premise of all his researches is that all ideas are products of the “historical process.” There is no timeless truth to be guided by, no natural right. All right is historical.
In coming decades, several Claremont scholars did Wood the honor of taking him seriously in the pages of the CRB, and he typically reciprocated by responding with spirit. With many other instructive asides, the central issue remained—natural right or history? About each of the essays and reviews listed below and about the responses to them and the rejoinders to the responses, I say earnestly: read the whole thing. Taken together, they will greatly enhance your commemoration of this 250th anniversary. Get yourself a good strong cup of coffee or a glass of your favorite single malt and settle in.
Steven Hayward in the winter 2006/7 issue. Paul Rahe’s response to Hayward and Hayward’s rejoinder in the spring 2007 issue.
Richard Samuelson in the spring 2010 issue. Wood’s reply to Samuelson and Samuelson’s rejoinder in the summer 2010 issue.
Edward Erler in the spring 2022 issue. Wood’s reply to Erler and Erler’s rejoinder in the summer 2022 issue.
Wood also showed his sporting spirit by writing for Claremont Digital in 2018 and CRB print in the winter 2021/22 issue.
When you are through reading these, you will be well prepared to pick up a copy of Tom West’s The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom and look up his many references to Gordon Wood and their agreements and disagreements on a wide array of facts and issues in the American Founding. Like Hayward, Samuelson, and Erler, West explains that Wood’s assumption that all ideas are the product of historical contingency requires Wood to deny “the founders’ most important claim: that there are certain truths that can reliably guide political life in all times and places.” On this great question—natural right or history?—West’s book “presupposes neither view.” Again, read the whole thing.
Gordon Wood, RIP
Chris Flannery
Contributing Editor
Readers might enjoy this examination of West's book, and the foundations of natural rights, in a series of brief posts from 2018 (joined by Michael Anton).
https://malcolmpollack.com/2018/06/23/on-the-founding-questions-from-the-right-of-the-right/
Thanks for putting these links together. This is a big loss.