The Declaration of Independence in Historical Context
Title | The Declaration of Independence in Historical Context PDF eBook |
Author | Barry Alan Shain |
Publisher | Yale University Press |
Pages | 784 |
Release | 2014-06-10 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0300158742 |
Letters, papers, petitions and proclamations from the mid-18th century in the American colonies, provide a different historical perspective on the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence
Title | The Declaration of Independence PDF eBook |
Author | David Armitage |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 332 |
Release | 2007-01-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780674022829 |
In a stunningly original look at the American Declaration of Independence, David Armitage reveals the document in a new light: through the eyes of the rest of the world. Not only did the Declaration announce the entry of the United States onto the world stage, it became the model for other countries to follow. Armitage examines the Declaration as a political, legal, and intellectual document, and is the first to treat it entirely within a broad international framework. He shows how the Declaration arose within a global moment in the late eighteenth century similar to our own. He uses over one hundred declarations of independence written since 1776 to show the influence and role the U.S. Declaration has played in creating a world of states out of a world of empires. He discusses why the framers’ language of natural rights did not resonate in Britain, how the document was interpreted in the rest of the world, whether the Declaration established a new nation or a collection of states, and where and how the Declaration has had an overt influence on independence movements—from Haiti to Vietnam, and from Venezuela to Rhodesia. Included is the text of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and sample declarations from around the world. An eye-opening list of declarations of independence since 1776 is compiled here for the first time. This unique global perspective demonstrates the singular role of the United States document as a founding statement of our modern world.
American Scripture
Title | American Scripture PDF eBook |
Author | Pauline Maier |
Publisher | Vintage |
Pages | 337 |
Release | 2012-02-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0307791955 |
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.
A Timeline History of the Declaration of Independence
Title | A Timeline History of the Declaration of Independence PDF eBook |
Author | Allan Morey |
Publisher | Lerner Publishing Group |
Pages | 52 |
Release | 2014-11-01 |
Genre | Juvenile Nonfiction |
ISBN | 1467736406 |
By the 1760s, most American colonists had become fed up with British rule. They were tired of the unfair taxes and not being able to create their own laws, and cries for revolution were ringing out across the land. As the revolution took hold, Thomas Jefferson drafted a document that formally declared the colonies' independence. The adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, marked an important turning point in US history. Over the next five years, the colonists would fight to make their independence a reality. Explore the history of this important document. Track the events and turning points that led the colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain.
The Declaration of Independence
Title | The Declaration of Independence PDF eBook |
Author | Carl Lotus Becker |
Publisher | |
Pages | 304 |
Release | 1922 |
Genre | Natural law |
ISBN |
The Declaration of Independence
Title | The Declaration of Independence PDF eBook |
Author | Carl Lotus Becker |
Publisher | Jazzybee Verlag |
Pages | 219 |
Release | 2017 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 3849649784 |
In this long essay Becker analyzed the structure, drafting, and philosophy of the Declaration. He recognizes that it was not intended as an objective historical statement of the causes of the Revolution, but merely furnished a moral and legal justification for rebellion. Step by step, the colonists modified their theory to suit their needs. Whenever men become sufficiently dissatisfied with the existing regime of positive law and custom, they will be found reaching out beyond it for the rational basis of what they conceive ought to be. This is what the Americans did in their controversy with Great Britain.
Inventing America
Title | Inventing America PDF eBook |
Author | Garry Wills |
Publisher | Vintage |
Pages | 440 |
Release | 2017-02-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0385542836 |
From one of America's foremost historians, Inventing America compares Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence with the final, accepted version, thereby challenging many long-cherished assumptions about both the man and the document. Although Jefferson has long been idealized as a champion of individual rights, Wills argues that in fact his vision was one in which interdependence, not self-interest, lay at the foundation of society. "No one has offered so drastic a revision or so close or convincing an analysis as Wills has . . . The results are little short of astonishing" —(Edmund S. Morgan, New York Review of Books)