Gordon S Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author, died on Sunday after being struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot in Rhode Island. He was 92.
Details of the Incident
According to East Providence police, as reported by golocalprov.com, Wood was crossing a supermarket parking lot when he was hit by a vehicle. The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with authorities. Wood was transported to Rhode Island Hospital with serious injuries and later succumbed to them.
Academic Legacy
Wood was the Alva O Way University Professor and professor of history emeritus at Brown University. He was widely regarded as a leading historian of the American Revolutionary era, earning numerous academic awards over five decades. His 1993 Pulitzer Prize in history was awarded for The Radicalism of the American Revolution, a landmark work arguing that the break with Britain was as much an internal social and political transformation as a desire for independence.
His other notable books include The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969), Empire of Liberty, and Revolutionary Characters, a biography of the founding fathers. Among his many honors were the 1970 Bancroft Prize for American history literature and the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Barack Obama at the White House in March 2011.
Influence and Controversy
Wood's works were considered benchmarks of intellectual and social historiography, reshaping America's origin story after World War II, according to a Washington Post obituary. He was a prominent critic of the New York Times' 1619 Project, which he argued encouraged a sense of victimhood. He contended that the founders, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, mistakenly believed slavery would die out naturally, and that the Revolution energized the abolitionist movement.
Donald Trump also criticized the 1619 Project, stating in 2020 that it warped the American story. Wood's death was confirmed by his daughter, Amy Louise Wood, a historian at Illinois State University.
