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The Purpose of the Past book cover
The Purpose of the Past
Reflections on the Uses of History
2008
First Published
3.91
Average Rating
336
Number of Pages
An analysis of the practice and art of historical documentation evaluates the contributions of some of the world's most important historians, explaining how the modern world is requiring key changes to the discipline of recording history. 30,000 first printing.
Avg Rating
3.91
Number of Ratings
362
5 STARS
29%
4 STARS
41%
3 STARS
23%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
1%
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Author

Gordon S. Wood
Gordon S. Wood
Author · 13 books
Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. He is the author of many books, including The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, which won the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association; The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize; The American Revolution: A History; The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin; Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, which was a New York Times bestseller; Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (OUP, 2009), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the American History Book Prize from the New-York Historical Society; and Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He is a regular reviewer for the New York Review of Books.
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