The Purpose of the Past

An erudite scholar and an elegant writer, Gordon S. Wood has won both numerous awards and a broad readership since the 1969 publication of his widely acclaimed The Creation of the American Republic . With The Purpose of the Past , Wood has essentially created a history of American history, assessing the current state of the narrative vis-à-vis the work of some of its most important scholars—doling out praise and scorn with equal measure. In this wise, passionate defense of history's ongoing nece