Chapter I: Preface
Chapter II: Becoming Independent
Chapter III: The Nation's Infancy
Chapter IV: Youthful Republic
Chapter V. Compromising for the Sake of Expansion
Chapter VI. Jacksonian Era Democracy
Chapter VII. Subordination
Chapter VIII: The Unraveling Bonds of Union
Chapter IX: Sectional Cataclysm
Chapter X: Reconstruction
Chapter XI: Gilded Populism
Chapter XII: Inconsistent Progress
Chapter XIII: The Declaration in a New Deal State
Chapter XIV: Independence Principles in the Civil Rights Era
Chapter XV: Epilogue
Appendix: The Declaration of Independence
Alexander Tsesis is Associate Professor of Law at Loyola University-Chicago. He is the author of We Shall Overcome: A History of Civil Rights and the Law; The Thirteenth Amendment and American Freedom; and Destructive Messages: How Hate Speech Paves the Way for Harmful Social Movements.
"The goal of Tsesis's work is ambitious, tracing how Americans have
utilized the Declaration's decree of equality and natural rights in
popular and political debates over almost a 200-year span...[H]is
choice to include all the ways equality and liberty were
interpreted during this almost two-century span of the nation's
history provides an excellent overview of the broader evolution of
American politics and culture into the modern era."--American
Nineteenth Century History
"[W]ell-researched and brilliantly written Tsesis makes a
compelling argument that we need to continue to be guided by the
principles stated in the Declaration of Independence and that even
in the twenty-first century it remains the best standard for
defining individual liberty. Through his meticulous attention to
detail and his superb research and writing, Tsesis is very
convincing. This is a book that should be read by both scholars and
the general
public."--The Historian
"Alexander Tsesis deserves applause for his depth of research,
clear organization, and his detailed writing. He skillfully draws
your interest towards diverse stories of oppression and causes
emotional response that is not common for a history book. For
Liberty and Equality: The Life and Times of the Declaration of
Independence is a compelling narrative of a formative document and
a country that has come a long way in terms of human
equality."--Unbound: Annual Review of Legislative History and Rare
Books
"[An] exceptional history of the Declaration in American political
rhetoric...Alexander Tsesis meticulously details how the
Declaration of Independence has stimulated and justified reform
movements throughout American history."--Tulsa Law Review
"Utilizing speeches and newspaper articles, Tsesis traces the
importance of the Declaration of Independence as the purveyor of
'transcendent' American norms...Recommended."--CHOICE
"Tsesis provides a significant commentary on the revolutionary
legacy and Jefferson's eternally memorable text."--Jack Rakove, The
New Republic
"No document is as cherished, or misused, by Americans as the
Declaration of Independence. For Liberty and Equality is a
remarkably perceptive history of the Declaration, elegantly written
and carefully argued, by one of our brightest and most original
legal scholars. There is no better book on this subject in print
today."--David Oshinsky, Jack S. Blanton Chair in History,
University of Texas; Distinguished Scholar in Residence, New
York
University; and Winner, Pulitzer Prize for History, 2006
"Alexander Tsesis has written a remarkable love letter on the
Declaration of Independence. That is, like Abraham Lincoln, he
views the Declaration's proclamation of equal rights to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the essence of America
and, like Lincoln, he exhibits real anguish at the betrayal of this
promise by toleration of systematic inequalities (the most notable,
of course, being slavery). Although a marvelous overview of
American history
from 1776 onward--and the use made by political reformers of the
Declaration's basic norms--it is also a call to his readers today
to take seriously the demands that the Declaration places on
anyone
who would seek to make the United States a truly 'more perfect
Union.'"--Sanford Levinson, author of Framed: America's 51
Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance
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