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. She lets us hear the voice of the people as revealed in other "declarations" of 1776. She describes the transformation of the Second Continental Congress into a national government, unlike anything that preceded or followed it. Historian 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. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1997"-Title page verso 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."Originally published in hardcover. Maier 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. 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.
In Maier's hands, the Declaration of Independence is brought close to us.
Maier 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.
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