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Inventing America by Garry Wills

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Inventing America

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence

By Garry Wills

By Garry Wills

By Garry Wills

By Garry Wills

By Garry Wills
Read by Tom Weitzel

By Garry Wills
Read by Tom Weitzel

Paperback $17.00

Jan 02, 2018 | 432 Pages

Ebook $9.99

Feb 15, 2017 | 398 Pages

Audiobook Download $25.00

Jan 02, 2018 | 1092 Minutes

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    Inventing America by Garry Wills
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    Jan 02, 2018 | 432 Pages
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      Feb 15, 2017 | 398 Pages

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    About Inventing America

    From acclaimed historian Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg, a celebrated re-appraisal of the meaning and the source of inspiration of The Declaration of Independence, based on a reading of Jefferson’s original draft document.

    Inventing America upended decades of thinking about The Declaration of Independence when it was first published in 1978 and remains one of the most influential and important works of scholarship about this founding document. Wills challenged the idea that Jefferson took all his ideas from John Locke. Instead, by focussing on Jefferson’s original drafts, he showed Jefferson’s debt to Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Lord Kames and Francis Hutcheson, and even the metaphysics of Aristotle. Wills’s close reading of the previously overlooked drafts of the Declaration have altered and deepened the meaning and consequences of the single most important document that contintues to define America.

    About Inventing America

    From one of America’s foremost historians, Inventing America compares Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence with the final, accepted version, thereby challenging many long-cherished assumptions about both the man and the document. Although Jefferson has long been idealized as a champion of individual rights, Wills argues that in fact his vision was one in which interdependence, not self-interest, lay at the foundation of society.

    “No one has offered so drastic a revision or so close or convincing an analysis as Wills has . . . The results are little short of astonishing” —(Edmund S. Morgan, New York Review of Books)

    About Inventing America

    From acclaimed historian Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg, a celebrated re-appraisal of the meaning and the source of inspiration of The Declaration of Independence, based on a reading of Jefferson’s original draft document.

    Inventing America upended decades of thinking about The Declaration of Independence when it was first published in 1978 and remains one of the most influential and important works of scholarship about this founding document.  Wills challenged the idea that Jefferson took all his ideas from John Locke. Instead, by focussing on Jefferson’s original drafts, he showed Jefferson’s debt to Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Lord Kames and Francis Hutcheson, and even the metaphysics of Aristotle. Wills’s close reading of the previously overlooked drafts of the Declaration have altered and deepened the meaning and consequences of the single most important document that contintues to define America.

    Read An Excerpt

    Also by Garry Wills

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    See all books by Garry Wills

    Also by Garry Wills

    What the Qur'an Meant
    The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis
    Why Priests?
    Verdi's Shakespeare
    Outside Looking In
    See all books by Garry Wills

    Also by Garry Wills

    What the Qur'an Meant
    The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis
    Why Priests?
    Verdi's Shakespeare
    Outside Looking In
    See all books by Garry Wills

    About Garry Wills

    Garry Wills is a historian and the author of the New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant, Papal Sin, and Why Priests?, among others. A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and other publications, Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor emeritus at Northwestern University…. More about Garry Wills

    About Garry Wills

    Garry Wills is a historian and the author of the New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant, Papal Sin, and Why Priests?, among others. A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and other publications, Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor emeritus at Northwestern University…. More about Garry Wills

    About Garry Wills

    Garry Wills is a historian and the author of the New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant, Papal Sin, and Why Priests?, among others. A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and other publications, Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor emeritus at Northwestern University…. More about Garry Wills

    Product Details

    Category: Colonial/Revolutionary Period | Domestic Politics | Philosophy

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Vintage
    Jan 02, 2018 | 432 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780525435976

    Category: U.S. History

    Ebook | $9.99
    Published by Vintage
    Feb 15, 2017 | 398 Pages | ISBN 9780385542838

    Category: Colonial/Revolutionary Period | Domestic Politics | Philosophy | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $25.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jan 02, 2018 | 1092 Minutes | ISBN 9780525525059

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    Praise

    “No one has offered so drastic a revision or so close or convincing an analysis as Wills has. . . . The results are little short of astonishing.” —Edmund S. Morgan, The New York Review of Books

    “The best and most thorough analysis of the Declaration ever written.” —David Brion Davis, The New York Times Book Review

    “A scintalling tour de force of historical detective work.” —Time

    Awards

    Merle Curti Award WINNER 1978

    National Book Critics Circle Awards WINNER 1978

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