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Article: `Jefferson's Empire,' by Peter S. Onuf; University Press of Virginia.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- July 5, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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`We have "only our history that makes us a single people," claimed Gordon S. Wood, the grand historian of revolutionary America, at a recent Philadelphia conference on "National Visions of the Founders."
"McDonald's," he added, "could never do it."
The catch, he and his sophisticated listeners knew, is that we don't have a single history for our people, or a single "Founder" _ George Washington included _ whose vision for the United States of America survived without compromise, change and surprise.
When James Wilson suggested that a sole executive lead the country, Wood noted, John Rutledge worried that the citizenry would think their ...