Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters

Edward J Larson

Book cover for Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters
Image for variant 9781324078975
Book cover for Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters
Image for variant 9781324078975

Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters

Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters

Edward J Larson

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Description

At the beginning of 1776, virtually no one in the colonies was advocating independence: Americans based their grievances against Parliament on their rights as British subjects. By the end of 1776, independence was on every patriot's lips. The many tyrannies of a king had made an independent republic necessary. In Declaring Independence, Edward J. Larson gives us a compact, insightful history of that pivotal year. He traces a narrative arc that runs from the inspiring appeals of Paine's Common Sense in January; through the soaring ideals of midsummer, when the Continental Congress grounded independence in the self-evident truths of human equality and individual rights, and the states wove revolutionary principles of republican government and the rule of law into their new constitutions; to Paine's urgent pleas of December, when "the times that try men's souls" required Americans not "to shrink from the service of their country." Dramatic military clashes also punctuate the year: the British evacuation of Boston forced by the brilliant maneuvers of Washington's Army; the Battle of Long Island, a costly defeat that opened New York to British occupation; and the desperate year-end victory of a threadbare American army at Trenton.

Combined, these ideals and the sacrifices remind us why, on this anniversary and at this political moment, 1776 matters to all of us.

Critical Reviews

Timely and timeless.--Susan Dunn, author of Jefferson's Second Revolution

A profound account of a pivotal year, 1776, with special emphasis on the generative state constitutions and state declarations of rights that took shape that year. If you want to understand America--all of it, deeply, widely, then, now, and in between--read Larson.--Akhil Reed Amar, author of Born Equal

Declaring Independence is a brilliant illumination of the self-evident truths that inspired America's revolutionary war against the tyrannical British monarchy. On the eve of our 250th anniversary, if we are to reclaim our founding ideals of democratic self-government and rule by law, we should begin by poring over every studied page of Edward J. Larson's anniversary gift to America.--J. Michael Luttig, former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge

At a time when the guardrails of our democracy are being tested, it is vitally important to understand the foundations of American government. Edward J. Larson has written a magnificent book that explains how pivotal 1776 was for liberty, equality, and democracy. This beautifully written history is stunning in its lessons for today.--Erwin Chemerinsky, author of No Democracy Lasts Forever

Edward J. Larson's eloquent and illuminating Declaring Independence ranks as the indispensable history to read as Americans prepare for our 250th anniversary as a nation.--Douglas Brinkley, author of Silent Spring Revolution

Publishing Information

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pub date: 2025-11-11
Length: 240 pages

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