La Revolución Norteamericana - Gordon S. Wood

Spanish Description La revolucion norteamericana es parte de la coleccion Breve Historia Universal, que ofrece una nueva vision de la historia de la humanidad. Gordon Wood, un notable especialista en la historia de Estados Unidos, conduce a los lectores a traves de las paginas de este libro con un lenguaje ameno y accesible. Cuando Abraham Lincoln intento definir la esencia de Estados Unidos se remonto a la revolucion norteamericana. Sabia que la revolucion no solo habia sido el origen legal de la joven nacion sino tambien de los valores y esperanzas del pueblo norteamericano. Los ideales y aspiraciones -el compromiso con la libertad, el constitucionalismo, el bienestar y la igualdad de los ciudadanos- que se plasmaron en la Constitucion norteamericana provienen de la era revolucionaria. Lincoln tambien era consciente de que la revolucion habia convencido a los norteamericanos de ser un pueblo diferente, destinado a guiar el mundo hacia la libertad, espiritu que sigue hoy tan vivo como entonces. Esta historia tiene todos los ingredientes para un buen drama: trece colonias insignificantes al otro lado del Atlantico se levantan contra el gobierno britanico para convertirse, en poco mas de tres decadas, en una enorme, industriosa, bulliciosa y poderosa republica de cuatro millones de habitantes. English Description A magnificent account of the revolution in arms and consciousness that gave birth to the American republic. When Abraham Lincoln sought to define the significance of the United States, he naturally looked back to the American Revolution. He knew that the Revolution not only had legally created the United States, but also had produced all of the great hopes and values of the American people. Our noblest ideals and aspirations-our commitments to freedom, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, and equality-came out of the Revolutionary era. Lincoln saw as well that the Revolution had convinced Americans that they were a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty. The Revolution, in short, gave birth to whatever sense of nationhood and national purpose Americans have had. No doubt the story is a dramatic one: Thirteen insignificant colonies three thousand miles from the centers of Western civilization fought off British rule to become, in fewer than three decades, a huge, sprawling, rambunctious republic of nearly four million citizens. But the history of the American Revolution, like the history of the nation as a whole, ought not to be viewed simply as a story of right and wrong from which moral lessons are to be drawn. It is a complicated and at times ironic story that needs to be explained and understood, not blindly celebrated or condemned. How did this great revolution come about? What was its character? What were its consequences? These are the questions this short history seeks to answer. That it succeeds in such a profound and enthralling way is a tribute to Gordon Wood s mastery of his subject, and of the historian s craft. "