Product 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77741 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-26
• Released on: 1998-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com Review
This is a well-written, well-researched, entertaining account of the creation of the United States' Declaration of Independence as well as an analysis of how the declaration has been enshrined as something of a sacred document (a place it did not always hold). Pauline Maier, a history professor at MIT, will no doubt surprise many readers with detective work demonstrating that Jefferson's Declaration of Independence was actually preceded by many local declarations, which have been generally overlooked by historians but which were published throughout the colonies and were well known in their day. American Scripture holds many surprises as it details Jefferson's drafting of the document, the editing process, and the varying regard with which the Declaration of Independence has been held in the past two centuries.

From Library Journal
Maier (American history, MIT; From Resistance to Revolution, LJ 7/72) sets the stage for her fascinating history of the Declaration of Independence with a concise and well-written introduction into the political background of the American Revolution. She provides the context for the document within the British tradition of declarations, addresses, and petitions and relates it to the many local and state declarations that aimed to mobilize support for independence. The thrust of her work is a careful examination of the drafting of the document by Jefferson and the Congressional committee; she then describes how Congress edited it into its final form. The latter third of the book is dedicated to the ways in which the Declaration has been redefined and used by different groups of Americans. Combining meticulous scholarship with clear prose, Maier tells a compelling story that will succeed in winning her a general audience. Highly recommended.
-?David B. Mattern, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This analysis of the initial crafting of the Declaration of Independence and its subsequent metamorphosis into a sacred document is a worthy successor to Carl Becker's landmark 1922 publication The Declaration of Independence. Instead of assuming the Declaration and the political ideas it expounded were essentially European in origin, Maier places the document itself and the process by which it was conceived and executed firmly in the context of eighteenth-century American sensibilities. By evaluating the Declaration of Independence as a homegrown expression of colonial discontent, it becomes a natural extension of prior revolutionary activities and ideologies rather than a precursor to the rebellion. After the Declaration caused its initial sensation, it served merely as a footnote to the history of the Revolutionary War until well into the nineteenth century, when it was resurrected, revitalized, and ultimately transformed into sanctified dogma. A powerful and engrossing account of the document most responsible for defining the cultural ethos of the American citizenry. Sure to become a classic, this is recommended for most public library collections. Margaret Flanagan

Customer Reviews

Sometimes dry editorial review of the writing of the Declaration
Referenced by William Lee Miller in Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography. Sometimes dry editorial review of the writing of the Declaration.

Most interesting aspect is the discussion of the state and local declarations before and after the real Declaration of Independence, and the history of the physical Declaration, which might have been expanded.

Writing the Declaration
If you're looking for a great book on the writing of the Declaration of Independence, the clear choice is Pauline Maier's American Scripture. Maier begins with a travel narrative of sorts, explaining what an early American historian sees when she visits the National Archives, and observes hundreds of tourists waiting to view the document. No other significant document in the history of the United States, she notices, seems to create as much reverence, excitement, and patriotism as the Declaration. While the viewers don't necessarily have all of the history under exact command, they have great respect for the document. How the document came to be, and how it developed such popular acclaim become the subjects of the rest of Maier's book. This book truly is a history of the writing of the Declaration. Maier examines the documents that preceded that of July 4, 1776. She finds that in the months preceding July 1776 localities drafted their own declarations, mini-declarations, declaring the cessation of their allegiance to George III and Parliament. These mini-declarations formed the linguistic and stylistic basis for the national declaration. Producing the American Declaration of Independence was a task that fell to a committee of five, which included Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and John Adams. The lion's share of the credit for drafting the Declaration is usually accorded to Jefferson, but Maier finds that the committee of five, particularly Adams, was far more influential than previously thought. Ultimately Maier's book is carefully researched and well-crafted. It is beautifully written, and a joy to read. For those who teach American history, as I do, it is an excellent resource to use in an advanced undergraduate class to discuss how to do research and how to write history. I read this book my first year of graduate school and have relied on it heavily ever since.

Very Enlightening
I learned much about the construction of the Declaration of Independence, its meaning, the intents behind it, and some of the uses. This is a must read for anyone who wants to know the real story behind the Declaration of Independence. Much of what we are taught about it is too simplistic.

The main drawback is that she jumps around a bit in breaking down the Declaration of Independence. It will be boring for those who only have a cursory interest in the Declaration of Independence.