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Most of the books I have been featuring in this series highlight the philosophical and political background of the Declaration, going all the way back to antiquity in some cases, as well as dilating the ongoing controversies about several key aspects of the Declaration, such as the nature of "self-evident truth" or "all men are created equal."
This week's featured book takes a different tack. It is Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters, by Edward J. Larson. Larson is a best-selling author and historian who also happens to teach law right across the hill from me at Pepperdine University. He is the author of more books that I can count at this point, including a previous book that we'll briefly discuss here that won him a Pultizer Prize back in the1990s, Summer for the Gods, which tells the real story of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1924.
The significance of his new book in this semiquincentennial season is that blends both ideas and events together in a unified narrative of the pivotal year in which the Declaration was promulgated. His thesis is simple, but often overlooked: while the sequential logic of revolution that seems obvious to us today was not necessarily obvious to the rebellious colonies as late the end of 1775. Up until that time, although armed rebellion and serious battles were well under way, the weight of political opinion was still likely on the side of reconciliation with Britain, so long as the British government acknowledged and respected the self-governing rights of its subjects. Just think of the logic of the famous phrase, No taxation without representation, which implies that if the colonists were properly represented in Parliament, taxation would be legitimate by acknowledging the necessity of the consent of not approval of the colonies.
As Ed explains in vivid detail, opinion hardened and very rapidly shifted toward full independence rather than reconciliation starting in the very opening weeks of January 1776. In some ways, the Declaration was a mere culmination of ideas advancing in tandem with events on the ground, so to speak. Thus 1776 deserves its reputation in the annals of the democratic revolution of modern times, but for more reasons that you may have previously perceived.