American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence by Pauline Maier

American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence by Pauline Maier • Hardcover • Knopf; 1st edition (June 17, 1997) • 304 Pages Condition: Excellent ———————————————————————————- Pauline Maier shows us the Declaration of Independence as both the defining statement of our national identity and the moral standard by which we live as a nation. From the Declaration's birth to the ways in which the document itself became sanctified. It is truly "American Scripture.” 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 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.