Empire of Liberty

I just wrapped up the second of three Oxford History of the United States titles I am trying to finish by the end of the summer: Empire of Liberty. This book was great, and gave me a good base of knowledge about a period in American history about which I was less than familiar. It truly was a time of sweeping change in the United States, something Gordon Wood illuminates beautifully with his text. It was highly readable and accessible, but his scholarship was excellent - typical of the series. If you love American history, then you should give this book a shot! I'll conclude this brief review with a quote from p.2 of the book:

By 1815 Americans had experienced a transformation in the way they related to one another and in the way they perceived themselves and the world around them. And this transformation took place before industrialization, before urbanization, before railroads, and before any of the technological breakthroughs usually associated with modern social change. In the decades following the Revolution America changed so much and so rapidly that Americans not only became used to change but came to expect it and prize it.