Pulitzer-winning historian honored by Obama dies after car hits him in Rhode Island supermarket parking lot
CBS News • • nation
Key Points:
- Gordon S. Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian renowned for his scholarship on the American Revolution, died at age 92 after being struck by a car in a Rhode Island supermarket parking lot.
- Wood was honored by former President Barack Obama in 2011 with the National Humanities Medal for his work on the founding of the United States and the Constitution.
- He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for his influential book "The Radicalism of the American Revolution" and was a longtime professor at Brown University.
- Wood was known for emphasizing the importance of understanding the American Revolution as central to U.S. history, expressing concern that many students knew more about later conflicts like the Civil War.
- His name was referenced in the 1997 film "Good Will Hunting," highlighting his influence beyond academia.