Recommendations from our site
“American Scripture is the best book on the origins of the Declaration of Independence. Pauline Maier covers the subject as well as anyone ever did. She builds the context for the declaration. One important contribution Pauline Maier made was to show that the declaration wasn’t that original. She shows that preceding the actual writing of the declaration there were about 80 or 90 declarations issued by small groups and colonies. She also points out that the draft by Jefferson was amended quite considerably by the Congress. Maybe 40 percent of his draft was taken away and replaced.” Read more...
Gordon S. Wood, Historian
