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Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters
On the 250th anniversary of American independence, with the history of our founding a political battleground, this study of the ideas and battlefield sacrifices of 1776 by a Pulitzer Prize–winning scholar could not be more timely.
At the beginning of 1776, virtually no one in the colonies was advocating Americans based their grievances against Parliament on their rights as British subjects. By the end of 1776, independence was on every patriot’s lips. The many tyrannies of a king had made an independent republic necessary. In Declaring Independence, Edward J. Larson gives us a compact, insightful history of that pivotal year. He traces a narrative arc that runs from the inspiring appeals of Paine’s Common Sense in January; through the soaring ideals of midsummer, when the Continental Congress grounded independence in the self-evident truths of human equality and individual rights, and the states wove revolutionary principles of republican government and the rule of law into their new constitutions; to Paine’s urgent pleas of December, when “the times that try men’s souls” required Americans not “to shrink from the service of their country.” Dramatic military clashes also punctuate the the British evacuation of Boston forced by the brilliant maneuvers of Washington’s Army; the Battle of Long Island, a costly defeat that opened New York to British occupation; and the desperate year-end victory of a threadbare American army at Trenton.
Combined, these ideals and the sacrifices remind us why, on this anniversary and at this political moment, 1776 matters to all of us.
At the beginning of 1776, virtually no one in the colonies was advocating Americans based their grievances against Parliament on their rights as British subjects. By the end of 1776, independence was on every patriot’s lips. The many tyrannies of a king had made an independent republic necessary. In Declaring Independence, Edward J. Larson gives us a compact, insightful history of that pivotal year. He traces a narrative arc that runs from the inspiring appeals of Paine’s Common Sense in January; through the soaring ideals of midsummer, when the Continental Congress grounded independence in the self-evident truths of human equality and individual rights, and the states wove revolutionary principles of republican government and the rule of law into their new constitutions; to Paine’s urgent pleas of December, when “the times that try men’s souls” required Americans not “to shrink from the service of their country.” Dramatic military clashes also punctuate the the British evacuation of Boston forced by the brilliant maneuvers of Washington’s Army; the Battle of Long Island, a costly defeat that opened New York to British occupation; and the desperate year-end victory of a threadbare American army at Trenton.
Combined, these ideals and the sacrifices remind us why, on this anniversary and at this political moment, 1776 matters to all of us.
- GenresHistory
239 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 11, 2025
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About the author
Edward J. Larson
41 books175 followersEdward J. Larson is the author of many acclaimed works in American history, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning history of the Scopes Trial, Summer for the Gods. He is University Professor of History and Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University, and lives with his family near Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 25, 2025
Good book and thesis surrounding the American Revolution as a war not just fought on the battlefield but through ideas. Think this could’ve been more thoroughly written as some key things were left out. I did enjoy that it was centered around Thomas Paine as he is often an anecdote rather than part of the whole story of the Revolution.
November 26, 2025
Why 1776 Remains the Pivotal Year of the American Revolution
In a surprisingly terse, quite remarkable, book, Edward J. Larson offers both the general public and students of history, a very concise exploration as to why 1776 remains the pivotal year of the American Revolution in his "Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters". This may be the best book on the American Revolution written in years, emphasizing the philosophical impact of an idea, not the deeds of individuals like Franklin, Washington and Jefferson, had on the course of the American Revolution, transforming what was a fight to secure the rights of American colonists to live under British law and enjoy the same rights and privileges of their English cousins who were represented by Parliament into a war of independence against the military and political might of the British Empire, not just Parliament, but especially against the king, George III, himself. Written to celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States' birth, Larson's concisely written book is a notable testament to the philosophical and political ideas represented in the very documents that propelled the course of the American Revolution, including not only the Declaration of Independence.
Larson argues persuasively as to how Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" set the course of the American Revolution, encouraging the colonists to view the ongoing war as a war of independence against the British Empire. The first chapter of his book, "Launching a Year of Common Sense" is a succinct overview describing who Paine was and how his "Common Sense" quickly garnered a vast readership within the American colonies, making a powerful, quite persuasive, case for American independence from the British Empire. In succeeding chapters, while Larson notes the importance of tactical moves such as Henry Knox's removal of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga (Chapter Two) and the departure of the British army and navy from Boston (Chapter Three), he stresses the importance of some of the colonies, such as North Carolina, drafting republican constitutions, as key steps towards an eventual declaration of independence, which John Adams recognized as important preconditions before the colonies could declare their independence from the British Empire.
What is especially noteworthy about Larson's book is that he shows how the Declaration of Independence was not written in isolation, by a Continental Congressional committee that remained aloof from political as well as military events in the other colonies. He notes that as the Declaration was being written, both Franklin and Jefferson had key roles in the drafting of republican constitutions in Pennsylvania and Virginia, noting how the language used in both documents greatly influenced Jefferson as he wrote the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence. This shows how complex the actual history behind the writing of the Declaration was, not the simplistic mythology popularized in the musical "1776".
While this book was written primarily for a general audience, Edward Larson does a great service for students of history by having extensive footnotes in each of his chapters, often citing from original correspondence written by the likes of Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Washington and their peers. I strongly suspect that once more readers are aware of Larson's superb scholarship, that his book could become used widely as a supplemental text to well-regarded histories of the American Revolution by such noted historians as Bernard Bailyn and Gordon Wood - who, in the interest of full disclosure, was one of my college professors. This is another major reason why "Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters" may be one of our most important histories about the year 1776 and especially why the American colonies opted to pursue a war of independence from the British Empire.
In a surprisingly terse, quite remarkable, book, Edward J. Larson offers both the general public and students of history, a very concise exploration as to why 1776 remains the pivotal year of the American Revolution in his "Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters". This may be the best book on the American Revolution written in years, emphasizing the philosophical impact of an idea, not the deeds of individuals like Franklin, Washington and Jefferson, had on the course of the American Revolution, transforming what was a fight to secure the rights of American colonists to live under British law and enjoy the same rights and privileges of their English cousins who were represented by Parliament into a war of independence against the military and political might of the British Empire, not just Parliament, but especially against the king, George III, himself. Written to celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States' birth, Larson's concisely written book is a notable testament to the philosophical and political ideas represented in the very documents that propelled the course of the American Revolution, including not only the Declaration of Independence.
Larson argues persuasively as to how Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" set the course of the American Revolution, encouraging the colonists to view the ongoing war as a war of independence against the British Empire. The first chapter of his book, "Launching a Year of Common Sense" is a succinct overview describing who Paine was and how his "Common Sense" quickly garnered a vast readership within the American colonies, making a powerful, quite persuasive, case for American independence from the British Empire. In succeeding chapters, while Larson notes the importance of tactical moves such as Henry Knox's removal of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga (Chapter Two) and the departure of the British army and navy from Boston (Chapter Three), he stresses the importance of some of the colonies, such as North Carolina, drafting republican constitutions, as key steps towards an eventual declaration of independence, which John Adams recognized as important preconditions before the colonies could declare their independence from the British Empire.
What is especially noteworthy about Larson's book is that he shows how the Declaration of Independence was not written in isolation, by a Continental Congressional committee that remained aloof from political as well as military events in the other colonies. He notes that as the Declaration was being written, both Franklin and Jefferson had key roles in the drafting of republican constitutions in Pennsylvania and Virginia, noting how the language used in both documents greatly influenced Jefferson as he wrote the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence. This shows how complex the actual history behind the writing of the Declaration was, not the simplistic mythology popularized in the musical "1776".
While this book was written primarily for a general audience, Edward Larson does a great service for students of history by having extensive footnotes in each of his chapters, often citing from original correspondence written by the likes of Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Washington and their peers. I strongly suspect that once more readers are aware of Larson's superb scholarship, that his book could become used widely as a supplemental text to well-regarded histories of the American Revolution by such noted historians as Bernard Bailyn and Gordon Wood - who, in the interest of full disclosure, was one of my college professors. This is another major reason why "Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters" may be one of our most important histories about the year 1776 and especially why the American colonies opted to pursue a war of independence from the British Empire.
December 1, 2025
I picked this up because of a growing interest in American Revolutionary history sparked by travels on the east coast. While I was familiar with many of the events, I liked how the author tied them all together to show how sentiments in 1776 changed. I suspect that there is little new here for readers well versed in this history, but I found it a surprisingly compelling read.
November 25, 2025
Well-articulates the dramatic pivot of colonial opinion in 1776: from pushing the unfairness of taxation without representation for British subjects, to seeking independence, but dense and academic in style. Do I regret reading it? No. Would I recommend it to the casual history buff? No.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews