Our Declaration - A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality

Our Declaration has already come to be regarded as a seminal work that reinterprets the promise of American democracy through our founding text. On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration and with over a decade of hindsight, renowned political philosopher Danielle Allen recontextualizes her revelatory book with a stunning new foreword. Combining a personal account of teaching the Declaration with a vivid evocation of the colonial world between 1774 and 1777, Allen reveals our nation's founding text as not a catechism to be memorized but an animating force that can and did change the world. Challenging conventional wisdom, Allen finds " new meaning in Jefferson's understanding of equality" (Joseph J. Ellis), boldly making the case that the Declaration is a document as much about political equality as about individual liberty. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Our Declaration is an " uncommonly elegant, incisive, and often poetic primer on America's cardinal text" (David M. Kennedy).