{"product_id":"9780679779087","title":"American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence","description":"\u003cp\u003ePauline 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaier 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 \u003ci\u003eCommon Sense\u003c\/i\u003e, which shifted the terms of debate; and the political maneuvers that allowed Congress to make the momentous decision.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaier 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47019779883248,"sku":"9780679779087","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780679779087_p0.jpg?v=1763609078","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780679779087","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}