Examine Wood’s characterization of George Washington in relation to republican virtue. How does this portrayal, particularly in moments of political restraint, contribute to Wood’s larger thesis about the role of individual character in establishing the new nation’s political norms?

Wood argues that the Revolution transformed colonial grievances into a unified movement. Compare the localized backcountry unrest of groups like the Regulators with the coordinated, intercolonial resistance to the Stamp Act. Drawing on Wood’s analysis, what specific mechanisms and political developments were essential for turning disparate frustrations into a cohesive revolutionary cause?

In his Preface, Wood dismisses anachronistic criticism of the Revolution’s failures to extend equality to all. Using the evidence Wood himself provides on slavery and the status of women, to what extent can this evidence be used to challenge his position? Analyze how the new republican structures he describes actively reinforced certain hierarchies even as they dismantled others.

Trace the evolution of the concept of sovereignty as Wood presents it, from the British doctrine of indivisible parliamentary authority to the American innovation of popular sovereignty. How did the Federalists’ redefinition of sovereignty attempt to address the problem of creating a stable, large-scale republic with two levels of government?

How do revolutionary principles produce divergent outcomes regarding slavery in Wood’s account? Analyze how these principles simultaneously fueled gradual abolition in the North while contributing to the South’s development of a self-conscious defense of slavery as a “peculiar institution.”

Analyze the specific mechanisms by which military mobilization, currency inflation, and the departure of Loyalists acted as social accelerators and how these processes reshaped economic and social hierarchies in post-Revolutionary America.

Analyze Gordon S. Wood’s authorial craft in his integration of primary source quotations. How does he use the words of figures like Thomas Hutchinson, John Adams, and James Madison not merely to report events, but to construct his historical argument about the political mindset and ideological conflicts of the era?

How does Wood’s argument that the 1780s crisis stemmed from the “democratic despotism” of state legislatures reshape interpretations of the US Constitution’s purpose within his narrative?