Gordon S. Wood
American history teacher, university and college faculty member, historian
Gordon Stewart Wood (November 27, 1933 – June 7, 2026) was an American historian and academic who was a professor at Brown University. He was a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992). His book The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (1969) won the 1970 Bancroft Prize. In 2010, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.
Early life and education
Gordon Stewart Wood was born on November 27, 1933, in Concord, Massachusetts, to Marion (Friberg) and Herbert G. Wood. He grew up in Worcester and Waltham. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Tufts University in 1955 and served as a trustee there. While serving in the United States Air Force in Japan, he obtained a Master of Arts in history from Harvard University. After finishing his service, he obtained his Ph.D. in history from Harvard in 1964 under Bernard Bailyn. His dissertation discussed the formation of distinctive political values and structures of thought in the late colonial era of British North America and became the basis for his 1969 book, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787.
The public source identifies “Gordon S. Wood” as american history teacher, university and college faculty member, historian. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gordon, Wood and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Gordon S. Wood”, the useful work is to connect “american history teacher, university and college faculty member, historian” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5585778. VIAF identifies the subject as 7434768. The Library of Congress control number is n50014996. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933, 2026, 1993 and 1992.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Gordon S. Wood”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Gordon S. Wood primary sources, Gordon S. Wood archive and Gordon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gordon S. Wood”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gordon S. Wood” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.