"The Revolution was the most radical and far-reaching event in American history." This is the premise of Gordon S. Wood's book The Radicalism of the American Revolution. In these pages Wood attempts to demonstrate that the American Revolution was radical because it radically changed the social and political structures of colonial America, structures that had always been fused together. Accordingly, he claims that the separation of these institutions forms the basis of his argument for radicalism. To establish his theories Wood divides his work into three sections, each depicting a phase through which American society has moved. The first section includes his analysis of the functioning of British and American society as they functioned under a monarchical system. The American colonies, like Great Britain, initially operated under a hierarchical system in which each level of society depended on the level above it. According to Wood, this system affected all colonial Americans, including free white men. The higher ranks belonged to the aristocracy whose positions were granted to them at birth and a hierarchical system existed within this group. The king was at the top of the hierarchy and the nobility at the bottom. Wood describes the gentlemen of the nobility as helping the common people. These men lent money to people of lower social status and also purchased goods from them, as well as acting as their representatives in higher social structures. In turn, commoners lent allegiance to the gentlemen through conscription and political support. The government within the monarchic society was populated by the aristocracy. They were the ones on whom the direction of the course of government affairs depended. Control of all paper companies did not occur until the republican ideology was established. Civic virtue and selflessness were the basis of the divisions that were finalized through the revolution. However, Republicans undermined their own plans for America. Using the idea of ​​equality not as equality of people but as “equality of opportunity,” Republicans opened the door for anyone with a proper education to hold office. This caused a clear separation between members of society, which would not last. When people began to think and act according to their own self-interest, they began to support self-government. Since they were believed to determine the virtue of their leaders, individuals began to understand that they could also determine virtue within themselves, leading them to believe that there was no reason to distinguish between men..