American Scripture American Scripture

American Scripture

Making the Declaration of Independence

    • 4.3 • 4 Ratings
    • $13.99
    • $13.99

Publisher Description

Pauline Maier shows us the Declaration as both the defining statement of our national identity and the moral standard by which we live as a nation. It is truly "American Scripture," and Maier tells us how it came to be -- from the Declaration's birth in the hard and tortuous struggle by which Americans arrived at Independence to the ways in which, in the nineteenth century, the document itself became sanctified.

Maier describes the transformation of the Second Continental Congress into a national government, unlike anything that preceded or followed it, and with more authority than the colonists would ever have conceded to the British Parliament; the great difficulty in making the decision for Independence; the influence of Paine's []Common Sense[], which shifted the terms of debate; and the political maneuvers that allowed Congress to make the momentous decision.

In Maier's hands, the Declaration of Independence is brought close to us. She lets us hear the voice of the people as revealed in the other "declarations" of 1776: the local resolutions -- most of which have gone unnoticed over the past two centuries -- that explained, advocated, and justified Independence and undergirded Congress's work. Detective-like, she discloses the origins of key ideas and phrases in the Declaration and unravels the complex story of its drafting and of the group-editing job which angered Thomas Jefferson.

Maier also reveals what happened to the Declaration after the signing and celebration: how it was largely forgotten and then revived to buttress political arguments of the nineteenth century; and, most important, how Abraham Lincoln ensured its persistence as a living force in American society. Finally, she shows how by the very act of venerating the Declaration as we do -- by holding it as sacrosanct, akin to holy writ -- we may actually be betraying its purpose and its power.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
1997
June 17
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
336
Pages
PUBLISHER
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
7.9
MB

Customer Reviews

GreenDaysd1113 ,

(real patriotism)

It's not about how we came to be a nation that forgets the constitution and calls it patriotism, it's actually about how the founding fathers intended us to live by, raise our children on, even uphold against all enemies foreign and especially "domestic".
Theirs not many books on the constitution that give you the real story not just the "patriotic" propaganda that they brain wash generations of Americans with.

More Books Like This

Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor
2013
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
2017
The Quartet The Quartet
2015
Independence Independence
2011
American Creation American Creation
2007
The Founding Fathers Reconsidered The Founding Fathers Reconsidered
2009

More Books by Pauline Maier

Ratification Ratification
2010
The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States
1998
From Resistance to Revolution From Resistance to Revolution
2013
The Old Revolutionaries The Old Revolutionaries
1980

Customers Also Bought

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
2022
Grant Grant
2017
The Pioneers The Pioneers
2019
Sapiens Sapiens
2015
The Splendid and the Vile The Splendid and the Vile
2020
Killers of the Flower Moon Killers of the Flower Moon
2017