Thursday, January 7, 2010

Mark Noll reviews Empire of Liberty

Noll's review of Gordon Wood's magnum opus on the early republic is available here.  Noll is sharply critical of Wood's interpretation of the role of religion in the post-Revolutionary War period.  Noll's treatment of the importance of Methodism during the early republic is particularly worth pondering...

2 comments:

Tom Van Dyke said...

Wow. Noll completely savages Jefferson. [I'm not a big fan either, but Noll is merciless.]

Thx for the post, Mark. Noll and Wood are major-leaguers and it's interesting to see them disagree.

Mark D. said...

Quite!

I'm not a big fan of Jefferson, either, so I'm with Noll in that respect. I have generally been impressed with Wood's book, but Noll's review has given me pause on that point. I'll have to go back and read it again with a more critical eye...

Cheers!