The history blogosphere has been abuzz the last couple of weeks over Gordon Wood’s takedown of Jill Lepore in his NYRB treatment of her book, The Whites of Their Eyes. Since I’ve already expressed my admiration for Lepore’s book, I read the review with a certain amount of consternation that grew to bafflement and finally culminated in a small amount of outrage and incredulity. Gordon Wood is, of course, one of our preeminent historians of the Founding period, and Lepore is one of the most interesting (and widely read) historians of the past decade through her sharp and funny essays Read more