Gordon S. Wood, Pioneering Historian of Early America, Dies at 92

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3. How a great historian influenced the Supreme Court

Opinion
Jason Willick

How a great historian influenced the Supreme Court

Justices often cite the work of Gordon S. Wood, who had a deep understanding of America's founding.

June 14, 2026 at 1:35 p.m. EDT Today at 1:35 p.m. EDT


Historian Gordon S. Wood receives a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2011 at the White House. (Brooks Kraft/Corbis via Getty Images)

“History is consoling,” Gordon S. Wood told me over lunch on Brown University’s campus in 2018. “It takes you off the roller coaster of emotions that this is the best of times or the worst of times.”

I was interviewing him about his book on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, “Friends Divided,” which described the brutal political polarization between Federalists and Republicans in the 1790s. Unlike many American historians, Wood aimed less to change the country than to understand it, and his deep understanding rendered him more equanimous about the state of American politics in the age of Trump than I was at age 24.

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By Jason Willick
Jason Willick is a Washington Post columnist focusing on law, politics and foreign policy.follow on X@jawillick