Download or read book The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America written by United States and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2002 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Annotated U S Constitution and Declaration of Independence written by Jack N. Rakove and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-22 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here in a newly annotated edition are the two founding documents of the United States of America: the Declaration of Independence (1776), our great revolutionary manifesto, and the Constitution (1787Ð88), in which ÒWe the PeopleÓ forged a new nation and built the framework for our federal republic. Together with the Bill of Rights and the Civil War amendments, these documents constitute what James Madison called our Òpolitical scripturesÓ and have come to define us as a people. Now a Pulitzer PrizeÐwinning historian serves as a guide to these texts, providing historical contexts and offering interpretive commentary. In an introductory essay written for the general reader, Jack N. Rakove provides a narrative political account of how these documents came to be written. In his commentary on the Declaration of Independence, Rakove sets the historical context for a fuller appreciation of the important preamble and the list of charges leveled against the Crown. When he glosses the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the subsequent amendments, Rakove once again provides helpful historical background, targets language that has proven particularly difficult or controversial, and cites leading Supreme Court cases. A chronology of events provides a framework for understanding the road to Philadelphia. The general reader will not find a better, more helpful guide to our founding documents than Jack N. Rakove.
Download or read book The Conscience of the Constitution written by Timothy Sandefur and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty documents a forgotten truth: the word “democracy” is nowhere to be found in either the Constitution or the Declaration. But it is the overemphasis of democracy by the legal community–rather than the primacy of liberty, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence–that has led to the growth of government power at the expense of individual rights. Now, more than ever, Sandefur explains, the Declaration of Independence should set the framework for interpreting our fundamental law. In the very first sentence of the Constitution, the founding fathers stated unambiguously that “liberty” is a blessing. Today, more and more Americans are realizing that their individual freedoms are being threatened by the ever-expanding scope of the government. Americans have always differed over important political issues, but some things should not be settled by majority vote. In The Conscience of the Constitution, Timothy Sandefur presents a dramatic new challenge to the status quo of constitutional law.
Download or read book American Scripture written by Pauline Maier and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-02-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Our Declaration A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality written by Danielle Allen and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-06-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, Society of American Historians “A tour de force. . . . No one has ever written a book on the Declaration quite like this one.”—Gordon Wood, New York Review of Books Featured on the front page of the New York Times, Our Declaration is already regarded as a seminal work that reinterprets the promise of American democracy through our founding text. Combining a personal account of teaching the Declaration with a vivid evocation of the colonial world between 1774 and 1777, Allen, a political philosopher renowned for her work on justice and citizenship reveals our nation’s founding text to be an animating force that not only changed the world more than two-hundred years ago, but also still can. Challenging conventional wisdom, she boldly makes the case that the Declaration is a document as much about political equality as about individual liberty. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Our Declaration is an “uncommonly elegant, incisive, and often poetic primer on America’s cardinal text” (David M. Kennedy).
Download or read book The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence written by Paul B. Skousen and published by Izzard Ink Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution written by Richard Beeman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court really allowed to do? This unique and handy guide includes the documents that guide our government, annotated with accessible explanations from one of America's most esteemed constitutional scholars. In one portable volume, with accessible annotations and modernizing commentary throughout, Richard Beeman presents The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Beeman has created a fascinating apparatus for understanding the most important document in American history—and why it’s as central in the America of today as it was in creation of the country. Penguin presents a series of six portable, accessible, and—above all—essential reads from American political history, selected by leading scholars. Series editor Richard Beeman, author of The Penguin Guide to the U.S. Constitution, draws together the great texts of American civic life to create a timely and informative mini-library of perennially vital issues. Whether readers are encountering these classic writings for the first time, or brushing up in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, these slim volumes will serve as a powerful and illuminating resource for scholars, students, and civic-minded citizens.
Download or read book The Declaration of Independence written by David Armitage and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-15 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a stunningly original look at the American Declaration of Independence, David Armitage reveals the document in a new light: through the eyes of the rest of the world. Not only did the Declaration announce the entry of the United States onto the world stage, it became the model for other countries to follow. Armitage examines the Declaration as a political, legal, and intellectual document, and is the first to treat it entirely within a broad international framework. He shows how the Declaration arose within a global moment in the late eighteenth century similar to our own. He uses over one hundred declarations of independence written since 1776 to show the influence and role the U.S. Declaration has played in creating a world of states out of a world of empires. He discusses why the framers’ language of natural rights did not resonate in Britain, how the document was interpreted in the rest of the world, whether the Declaration established a new nation or a collection of states, and where and how the Declaration has had an overt influence on independence movements—from Haiti to Vietnam, and from Venezuela to Rhodesia. Included is the text of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and sample declarations from around the world. An eye-opening list of declarations of independence since 1776 is compiled here for the first time. This unique global perspective demonstrates the singular role of the United States document as a founding statement of our modern world.
Download or read book What Is the Declaration of Independence written by Michael C. Harris and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Step back in time to the birth of the United States of America and meet the real-life rebels who made this country free! On a hot summer day near Philadelphia in 1776, Thomas Jefferson sat at his desk and wrote furiously until early the next morning. He was drafting the Declaration of Independence, a document that would sever this country's ties with Britain and announce a new nation—The United States of America. Colonists were willing to risk their lives for freedom, and the Declaration of Independence made that official. Discover the true story of one of the most radical and uplifting documents in history and follow the action that fueled the Revolutionary War.
Download or read book The Three Documents That Made America written by Sam Fink and published by Blackstone Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time ever, the complete founding documents of the United States of America are here in one unabridged recording-the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. Sam Fink, award-winning author of the highly acclaimed illustrated book of The Declaration of Independence, provides concise introductions.
Download or read book A Citizen s Introduction to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution written by Matthew Spalding and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution are the greatest statements of human liberty ever written. They are the highest achievement of our political tradition, powerful beacons to all who strive for liberty. Taken together, these documents represent the liberating principles that America seeks to conserve for itself and proclaim to the world.If we are to restore and preserve America's principles, the truths to which we are dedicated and the common ideas that constitute us as a people, we must first rediscover them, writes Matthew Spalding, director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation.And that demands that we rediscover the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Download or read book The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence written by Delegates of The Constitutional Convention and published by Racehorse. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Including a new introduction by eminent civil libertarian and New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz, this edition of the US Constitution is a must-have for all Americans and anyone interested in American history. This quick, easy reference for our federal government’s structure, powers, and limitations includes: Introduction by Alan Dershowitz (author of the New York Times bestseller The Case Against Impeaching Trump) The Constitution of the United States The Bill of Rights All Amendments to the Constitution The Declaration of Independence The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence are two of the most important documents in American history. Conveying the principles on which the country was founded and providing the ideals that still guide American politics today, these are the seminal works from which the foundation of America was built. Signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, The Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of the three chief branches of the federal government, as well as the basic rights of the citizens of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was crafted by Thomas Jefferson in June of 1776 and it provides the basis of all American political philosophy and civil liberties. Collected here in one affordable, pocket-sized volume are some of the most valued pieces of writing in American history. Every American, regardless of political affiliation, should own a copy.
Download or read book The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States written by and published by Bantam Classics. This book was released on 2008-04-29 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Together in one book, the two most important documents in United States history form the enduring legacy of America’s Founding Fathers including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. The Declaration of Independence was the promise of a representative government; the Constitution was the fulfillment of that promise. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued a unanimous declaration: the thirteen North American colonies would be the thirteen United States of America, free and independent of Great Britain. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration set forth the terms of a new form of government with the following words: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Framed in 1787 and in effect since March 1789, the Constitution of the United States of America fulfilled the promise of the Declaration by establishing a republican form of government with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, became part of the Constitution on December 15, 1791. Among the rights guaranteed by these amendments are freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and the right to trial by jury. Written so that it could be adapted to endure for years to come, the Constitution has been amended only seventeen times since 1791 and has lasted longer than any other written form of government.
Download or read book Draft of the Declaration of Independence written by John Adams and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-10-29 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Adams (October 30 1735 - July 4, 1826) was the second president of the United States (1797-1801), having earlier served as the first vice president of the United States (1789-1797). An American Founding Father, Adams was a statesman, diplomat, and a leading advocate of American independence from Great Britain. Well educated, he was an Enlightenment political theorist who promoted republicanism, as well as a strong central government, and wrote prolifically about his often seminal ideas-both in published works and in letters to his wife and key adviser Abigail Adams. Adams was a lifelong opponent of slavery, having never bought a slave. In 1770 he provided a principled, controversial, and successful legal defense to the British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre, because he believed in the right to counsel and the "protect[ion] of innocence." Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. A lawyer and public figure in Boston, as a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and was its primary advocate in the Congress. Later, as a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and was responsible for obtaining vital governmental loans from Amsterdam bankers. A political theorist and historian, Adams largely wrote the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which together with his earlier Thoughts on Government, influenced American political thought. One of his greatest roles was as a judge of character: in 1775, he nominated George Washington to be commander-in-chief, and 25 years later nominated John Marshall to be Chief Justice of the United States. Adams' revolutionary credentials secured him two terms as George Washington's vice president and his own election in 1796 as the second president. During his one term as president, he encountered ferocious attacks by the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party led by his bitter enemy Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army and navy especially in the face of an undeclared naval war (called the "Quasi-War") with France, 1798-1800. The major accomplishment of his presidency was his peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamilton's opposition. In 1800, Adams was defeated for re-election by Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts. He later resumed his friendship with Jefferson. He and his wife founded an accomplished family line of politicians, diplomats, and historians now referred to as the Adams political family. Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. His achievements have received greater recognition in modern times, though his contributions were not initially as celebrated as those of other Founders. Adams was the first U.S. president to reside in the executive mansion that eventually became known as the White House.
Download or read book How to Read the Constitution the Declaration of Independence written by Paul B. Skousen and published by Izzard Ink Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence written by Delegates of The Constitutional Convention and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Including a new introduction by eminent civil libertarian and New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz, this edition of the US Constitution is a must-have for all Americans and anyone interested in American history. This quick, easy reference for our federal government’s structure, powers, and limitations includes: Introduction by Alan Dershowitz (author of the New York Times bestseller The Case Against Impeaching Trump) The Constitution of the United States The Bill of Rights All Amendments to the Constitution The Declaration of Independence The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence are two of the most important documents in American history. Conveying the principles on which the country was founded and providing the ideals that still guide American politics today, these are the seminal works from which the foundation of America was built. Signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, The Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of the three chief branches of the federal government, as well as the basic rights of the citizens of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was crafted by Thomas Jefferson in June of 1776 and it provides the basis of all American political philosophy and civil liberties. Collected here in one affordable, pocket-sized volume are some of the most valued pieces of writing in American history. Every American, regardless of political affiliation, should own a copy.
Download or read book The Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States of America written by United States and published by . This book was released on 1864 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
