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For Liberty and Equality
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most influential documents in modern history—the inspiration for what would become the most powerful democracy in the world. Indeed, at every stage of American history, the Declaration has been a touchstone for evaluating the legitimacy of legal, social, and political practices. Not only have civil rights activists drawn inspiration from its proclamation of inalienable rights, but individuals decrying a wide variety of governmental abuses have turned for support to the document's enumeration of British tyranny. In this sweeping synthesis of the Declaration's impact on American life, ranging from 1776 to the present, Alexander Tsesis offers a deeply researched narrative that highlights the many surprising ways in which this document has influenced American politics, law, and society. The drafting of the Bill of Rights, the Reconstruction Amendments, the New Deal, the Civil Rights movement—all are heavily indebted to the Declaration's principles of representative government. Tsesis demonstrates that from the founding on, the Declaration has played a central role in American political and social advocacy, congressional debates, and presidential decisions. He focuses on how successive generations internalized, adapted, and interpreted its meaning, but he also shines a light on the many American failures to live up to the ideals enshrined in the document. Based on extensive research from primary sources such as newspapers, diaries, letters, transcripts of speeches, and congressional records, For Liberty and Equality shows how our founding document shaped America through successive eras and why its influence has always been crucial to the nation and our way of life.
- GenresHistory
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First published May 3, 2012
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June 18, 2020
More and more these days the mavens of American opinion have taken pains to frame the Declaration of Independence as either a rhetorical relic or a narrowly directed legal document. Here, author Alexander Tsesis tell us why they do: the assertion that all men are created equal found in the Declaration's preamble. That notion doesn't square with the reality today's political system.
And do the opinion makers mean to change that reality? It doesn't seem likely. Instead, they reason from it that the DOI must not have had much actual significance in American law and culture in the first place, or so the current trend in academics and the media goes. And that frames inequality as an insoluble problem. This book means to counteract that perception.
Tsesis dispels the notion that the Declaration of Independence is a meaningless document and further argues that quite the opposite is the case. He does it by showing how the preamble to the Declaration factored into debates over every legal and social turn in American history in which the idea of equality has a bearing.
By taking that approach the author's thesis becomes a little repetitive; at each point in the nation's history he demonstrates anew how the Declaration's preamble plays a key role in building the notion of equality into both law and popular culture.
I like the book. Although I've been generally aware of the importance of the preamble, I'm surprised at how effectively the book drives home the point. As an example, the author shows how the first blow against "aristocracy" in the United States came immediately in the wake of independence with manhood emancipation. This struggle to extend voting rights to men generally, not just those who owned significant property, was carried out in good part by veterans of the Revolution who had understood themselves to be fighting for the idea of equality designated in the preamble and held that as the explicit sine qua non of joining the new federation.
From then on, more intriguing instances of what was first thought of as a battle against "aristocracies" draw attention to the enduring efficacy of the preamble of the Declaration. Readers even encounter the argument negatively, for Tsesis points out how so many countries emulating the United States excluded any reference to equality in their own founding documents; he leaves it to us to consider the legal and social systems that resulted.
I recommend this book. It has greatly helped ground my understanding of the unprecedented power of this unique document.
And do the opinion makers mean to change that reality? It doesn't seem likely. Instead, they reason from it that the DOI must not have had much actual significance in American law and culture in the first place, or so the current trend in academics and the media goes. And that frames inequality as an insoluble problem. This book means to counteract that perception.
Tsesis dispels the notion that the Declaration of Independence is a meaningless document and further argues that quite the opposite is the case. He does it by showing how the preamble to the Declaration factored into debates over every legal and social turn in American history in which the idea of equality has a bearing.
By taking that approach the author's thesis becomes a little repetitive; at each point in the nation's history he demonstrates anew how the Declaration's preamble plays a key role in building the notion of equality into both law and popular culture.
I like the book. Although I've been generally aware of the importance of the preamble, I'm surprised at how effectively the book drives home the point. As an example, the author shows how the first blow against "aristocracy" in the United States came immediately in the wake of independence with manhood emancipation. This struggle to extend voting rights to men generally, not just those who owned significant property, was carried out in good part by veterans of the Revolution who had understood themselves to be fighting for the idea of equality designated in the preamble and held that as the explicit sine qua non of joining the new federation.
From then on, more intriguing instances of what was first thought of as a battle against "aristocracies" draw attention to the enduring efficacy of the preamble of the Declaration. Readers even encounter the argument negatively, for Tsesis points out how so many countries emulating the United States excluded any reference to equality in their own founding documents; he leaves it to us to consider the legal and social systems that resulted.
I recommend this book. It has greatly helped ground my understanding of the unprecedented power of this unique document.
Displaying 1 of 1 review