“We hold these truths to be self-evident . . . all men are created equal . . . with certain inalienable rights . . . life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 250 years after they were written, these words remain at once familiar and startling. What do they mean to us today? Do we understand them in the same way the Founders did? Historian and former presidential speechwriter Ted Widmer seeks to answer these questions by returning to where the nation’s story began, the Declaration of Independence, to trace the remarkable history of how it came to be and how it has shaped the democratic aspirations of Americans and others for more than two centuries.
Weaving together more than sixty fascinating original texts, Widmer finds in the words of succeeding generations of Americans—radicals and conservatives, revolutionary insurgents and civil rights leaders, presidents and philosophers—the key to understanding the extraordinary durability of America’s founding ideas.
--
Ted Widmer has been a lifelong borrower from the Athenæum in every sense. His latest book, like others, derives from childhood experiences inside the Athenæum, and a sense that early American history was not far away. The Living Declaration: A Biography of America's Founding Text explores the 250-year history of the document that gave birth to the United States and strongly influenced later episodes, including the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. After growing up in Rhode Island, Widmer became a speechwriter and senior advisor to President Clinton, and he has twice served in the State Department. He has also taught or led research centers at Harvard, Brown, and the City University of New York.