Spanish Description
La revolución norteamericana es parte de la colección Breve Historia Universal, que ofrece una nueva visión de la historia de la humanidad.
Gordon Wood, un notable especialista en la historia de Estados Unidos, conduce a los lectores a través de las páginas de este libro con un lenguaje ameno y accesible.
Cuando Abraham Lincoln intentó definir la esencia de Estados Unidos se remontó a la revolución norteamericana. Sabía que la revolución no solo había sido el origen legal de la joven nación
sino también 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 Constitución norteamericana provienen de la era revolucionaria. Lincoln también era consciente de que la revolución había convencido a los norteamericanos
de ser un pueblo diferente, destinado a guiar el mundo hacia la libertad, espíritu que sigue hoy tan vivo como entonces.
Esta historia tiene todos los ingredientes para un buen drama: trece colonias insignificantes al otro lado del Atlántico se levantan contra el gobierno británico para convertirse, en poco más
de tres décadas, en una enorme, industriosa, bulliciosa y poderosa república 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.
