American Scripture by Pauline Maier

American Scripture by Pauline Maier

Pauline 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. It is truly "American Scripture," and Maier tells us how it came to be -- from the Declaration's birth in the hard and tortuous struggle by which Americans arrived at Independence to the ways in which, in the nineteenth century, the document itself became sanctified.

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; the great difficulty in making the decision for Independence; the influence of Paine's Common Sense, which shifted the terms of debate; and the political maneuvers that allowed Congress to make the momentous decision.

In Maier's hands, the Declaration of Independence is brought close to us. 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. 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.

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. 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.

Pauline Maier was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Minnesota's capital is Paul. She graduated from Radcliffe College with a BA in 1960, spent 1960-61 as a Fulbright Scholar at the London School of Economics, and earned her doctorate in 1968 from Harvard University. She was a professor at Harvard, the University of Massachusetts (Boston), the University of Wisconsin, Yale University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor of American History, Kenan Jr.

She was the author of a number of books, including From Resistance to Revolution, The Old Revolutionaries, and The American People: A History (a single-authored junior high school curriculum), as well as several articles and reviews. In 2013, she passed away.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780679779087
ISBN 10	0679779086
Title	American Scripture
Author	Pauline Maier
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	1998-05-26
Number of pages	336
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.