This unanimity of sentiment derives from the influence Professor Maier attributes to English writings, especially the Declaration of Rights (1689), on the wording of the resolutions. 49), their contents "virtually identical" (p. In perhaps the most important sections of the book, the author reviews the contents of documents on independence prepared by townships, county associations, state assemblies and other local groups and finds them to be "everywhere remarkably alike" (p. Professor Maier downplays the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence because the document "restated what virtually all Americans.thought and said in other words in other places" and was, therefore, "s a statement of political philosophy.purposely unexceptional" (p. In doing so, she takes us beyond the times of the Second Continental Congress to the partisan tumult of the 1790s, regional appropriations of the words of the document in the 1840s and 1850s, and Americans' redefinition of the meaning of equality during the Civil War. In drafting the Declaration, did Jefferson use primarily the ideas and words of John Locke, Scottish philosophers, fellow Virginian George Mason, Enlightenment thought generally, or various and sundry other English and American documents? In American Scripture, Pauline Maier adds her voice to this debate but in the process attempts to shift the discussion from the principles enunciated in the document to the ways in which Americans have made it part of their lives. Since the publication more than seventy-five years ago of Carl Becker's The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas, historians have wrestled with the wording of the document that declared American independence from Great Britain in July 1776. Reviewed by Ronald Hatzenbuehler (Idaho State University)
American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.
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