Richard Carwardine
The Eagle Has Taken Off
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815
By Gordon S Wood
Oxford University Press 778pp £25 order from our bookshop
An allegorical painting, Liberty in the Form of the Goddess of Youth – the work of Edward Savage, one of the early American republic’s most enterprising artists – serves as the dust-cover of this recent addition to the multi-volume Oxford History of the United States. A garlanded figure in a diaphanous gown treads a broken sceptre, a royal garter, and other symbols of monarchy under her foot; she raises a cup to feed a bald eagle, the symbol of the new nation, silhouetted against shafts of bright light. In the background, storms and lightning accompany the expulsion of the British fleet from Boston harbour. Above it all, a Union flag emerges from a break in the clouds, its pole topped with a liberty cap.
Savage’s imaginative creation goes unmentioned in Gordon Wood’s magisterial study of the United States between the ratification of the Federal Constitution and the conclusion of the War of 1812 (the omission being, one supposes, the result of tight production schedules). Yet the choice of image is especially well
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma
'We nipped down Mount Pleasant ... me marvelling at London all over again because the back of a Vespa gives you the everyday world like nothing else can.'
Ali Smith writes this month's diary.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa