Gordon S. Wood was born in Massachusetts on November 27, 1933. He graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 1955, where he would later serve as a trustee. Wood joined the United States Air Force and earned his Master of Arts (MA) from Harvard University during his service. He continued at Harvard, studying under Bernard Bailyn to earn his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1964. Wood published his dissertation in 1969, entitled, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. This book and Wood’s Radicalism of the American Revolution added fuel to a debate between proponents of “the Harvard republicanism” and “St. Louis republicanism.” These two views of republicanism differ over the timing of the change between the end of classical politics and the liberalism Americans came to embrace, prompting Wood to add a new Preface to Creation that expresses the idea that cultural changes are not sudden but more often come in subtle and complicated ways.

In his career, Wood has worked as a professor at Harvard University, the College of William and Mary, the University of Michigan, and Brown University. Wood held the Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutes at Cambridge University from 1982-1983.