Inventing America : Jefferson's Declaration of Independence

by Wills, Garry

• ISBN13: 9780618257768
• ISBN10: 0618257764
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-14
• Publisher: Mariner Books

Summary

From one of America's foremost historians, Inventing America compares Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence with the final, accepted version, thereby challenging many long-cherished assumptions about both the man and the document. Although Jefferson has long been idealized as a champion of individual rights, Wills argues that in fact his vision was one in which interdependence, not self-interest, lay at the foundation of society. "No one has offered so drastic a revision or so close or convincing an analysis as Wills has . . . The results are little short of astonishing" (Edmund S. Morgan New York Review of Books ).

Author Biography

Garry Wills is an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Mariner Edition	p. vii
Prologue	p. xiii
Revolutionary Charter
"...our sacred honor..."	p. 3
"...manly spirit bids us..."	p. 19
"...former systems of government..."	p. 34
"...right of the people to alter..."	p. 49
"...assemblage of horrors..."	p. 65
"...the circumstances of our emigration..."	p. 76
A Scientific Paper
"...necessary..."	p. 93
"...course of human events..."	p. 111
"...let facts be submitted..."	p. 132
"...effect their safety & happiness..."	p. 149
A Moral Paper
"...attentions to our British brethren..."	p. 167
"...self-evident..."	p. 181
"...endowed by their Creator..."	p. 193
"...created equal..."	p. 207
"...all men..."	p. 218
"...inalienable rights..."	p. 229
"...pursuit..."	p. 240
"...of happiness..."	p. 248
A Sentimental Paper
"...of nature and of nature's god..."	p. 259
"...agonizing affection..."	p. 273
"...bands which have connected..."	p. 284
"...one people..."	p. 293
"...unfeeling brethren..."	p. 307
National Symbol
"...opinions of mankind..."	p. 323
"...decent respect..."	p. 334
"...communication of grandeur..."	p. 345
"...no part of our constitution..."	p. 352
Epilogue	p. 363
Paraphernalia	p. 370
Key to Brief Citations	p. 372
The Declarations of Jefferson and of the Congress	p. 374
Index to Proper Names	p. 381
Index to Phrases	p. 391
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