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Title: Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Indepedence by Garry Wills ISBN: 0-618-25776-4 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 14 November, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Missing an "N"
Comment: To the staff of Amazon, please correct the typo in the title of this book? The word "Independence" is listed as "Indepedence".
Thank you.
Rating: 4
Summary: Thomas Jefferson's World
Comment: Garry Wills succeeds in getting the reader inside the cultural world of Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers. In this effort, he disentangles what we make of the Declaration of Independence in modern culture from its meaning for the authors and readers of 1776, and the differences between Jefferson's version and that finally approved by the Continental Congress. The science, morals, and sentiments of 18th century culture were all factors that played strongly in what Jefferson wrote.
Seriously, how could Jefferson write that it is self-evident that all men are created equal while personally holding slaves? Discussed at length, then balanced by discussion of 18th century obsessions with the sentiments one experiences in the presence of a natural wonder, such as the natural bridge of Virginia. The attempt by 18th century philosophers to develop mathematical theories of happiness and virtue has to evoke a chuckle in any reader. But... it was part of an Enlightenment worldview seeking mechanical models of human behavior and society. This enthusiasm for scientific approach to the affairs of life also resulted in the search for governmental machinery to run smoothly and maintain order and liberty simultaneously, that culminated in the U.S. Constitution thirteen years later.
Wills discusses at length the importance and meaning of the specific additions and deletions from Jefferson's draft to the final version, and Jefferson's lifelong preference for his original, unedited version. The number of seeming detours that the author makes, in the interest of painting a picture of 18th century culture, results in a book that seems long than necessary. The number of scholarly corrections based on comparing commonly held beliefs to the original documents is almost oppressive, however fascinating they may be.
Rating: 4
Summary: The "Moral Sense" of Jefferson's Declaration
Comment: Garry Wills "Inventing America" is a interesting and unconventional take on the thought of Thomas Jefferson and his authorship of the Declaration of Independence. Wills rejects the traditional "Lockean" view and instead puts forward a different and, I believe, valid hypothesis. Wills finds the philosophy of the Declaration in Jefferson's reading of the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, Francis Hutchenson, Thomas Reid, David Hume, and Lord Kames. These thinkers beleived, along with Jefferson, that man had an inate "moral sense" which man him human and governed the affairs of society. Wills book starts out slow when talking about the Decalrations beginnings, and the early Enlightenment influence, but picks up when he relates these thought to Jefferson.
Chapters 16 and 22 are particularly good since they deal with Jefferson's views on slavery. Wills correctly shows Jefferson always thought blacks fully human with a moral sense and integrity. Although he found their intelligence possibly below other races he never rejected their humanity nor their right "as a people" to be free. Chapter 22 show the fallacies behind modern critisism about simply "freeing" the slaves. Wills shows how unrealistic and quite impossible a wholesale emancipation in colonial Virginia would have been. Instead Jefferson wants freedom and education for the blacks, in their own nation, colinized to Africa where they could live free "as a people". Overall a great book.
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Title: Explaining America: The Federalist by Garry Wills, Garry Willis ISBN: 0140298398 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG: THE WORDS THAT REMADE AMERICA by Garry Wills ISBN: 0671867423 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 12 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Declaration of Independence : A Study in the History of Political Ideas by Carl L. Becker ISBN: 0394700600 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 February, 1958 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: "Negro President" : Jefferson and the Slave Power by Garry Wills ISBN: 0618343989 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: James Madison: (The American Presidents Series) by Garry Wills, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069054 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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