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

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- Book: [Our Declaration - A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality](https://www.bookquiver.com/danielle-allen/our-declaration-a-reading-of-the-declaration-of-independence-in-defense-of-equality) ([Our Declaration - A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/danielle-allen/our-declaration-a-reading-of-the-declaration-of-independence-in-defense-of-equality.md))
- Authors: [Danielle Allen](https://www.bookquiver.com/danielle-allen)
- Publisher: Liveright
- ISBN: 978-13-2409-797-6
- Published: 2026-04-21
- Language: en_US
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

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).