Get personalized recommendations and earn points toward a free book!
Before you go...
Check Out
The Bestselling Books of All Time
See the List
Inventing America by Garry Wills

Look Inside

Read An Excerpt

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

Best Seller
Paperback $17.00

Jan 02, 2018 | 432 Pages

Ebook $13.99

Feb 15, 2017 | 398 Pages

Audiobook Download $25.00

Jan 02, 2018 | 1092 Minutes

All Formats
+
    Inventing America by Garry Wills
    Paperback
    Jan 02, 2018 | 432 Pages
    See All Formats (2) +

    Paperback
    –

    • Paperback $17.00

      Jan 02, 2018 | 432 Pages

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook $13.99

      Feb 15, 2017 | 398 Pages

    Audio
    +

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    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

    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

    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 | $13.99
    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

    Inspired by Your Browsing History

    Also in Domestic Politics

    ‹ ›
    Half the Sky
    Half the Sky
    Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
    Rise and Kill First
    Rise and Kill First
    Ronen Bergman
    Give People Money
    Give People Money
    Annie Lowrey
    The New Populism
    The New Populism
    Marco Revelli
    Justice on Trial
    Justice on Trial
    Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino
    Insurgent Empire
    Insurgent Empire
    Priyamvada Gopal
    Inside the Five-Sided Box
    Inside the Five-Sided Box
    Ash Carter
    American Breakdown
    American Breakdown
    David Bromwich
    Impeachment
    Impeachment
    Cass R. Sunstein
    The New Huey P. Newton Reader
    The New Huey P. Newton Reader
    Huey P. Newton
    Riot. Strike. Riot
    Riot. Strike. Riot
    Joshua Clover
    American Prison
    American Prison
    Shane Bauer
    Ill Winds
    Ill Winds
    Larry Diamond
    Crippled
    Crippled
    Frances Ryan
    Stonewall
    Stonewall
    Martin Duberman and Martin Bauml Duberman
    Dignity
    Dignity
    Chris Arnade
    Tell Me Who You Are
    Tell Me Who You Are
    Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo
    Speech Police
    Speech Police
    David Kaye
    The Washington War
    The Washington War
    James Lacey
    This America
    This America
    Jill Lepore
    Savage Messiah
    Savage Messiah
    Laura Grace Ford
    The Dreamt Land
    The Dreamt Land
    Mark Arax
    The Impeachers
    The Impeachers
    Brenda Wineapple
    New Dark Age
    New Dark Age
    James Bridle
    Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths—and How We Can Stop
    Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths—and How We Can Stop
    Bill Eddy
    Getting to Maybe
    Getting to Maybe
    Brenda Zimmerman, Frances Westley and Michael Patton
    Future Histories
    Future Histories
    Lizzie O’Shea
    Become America
    Become America
    Eric Liu
    Become America
    Become America
    Eric Liu
    The Way of the Strangers
    The Way of the Strangers
    Graeme Wood
    In the Long Run We Are All Dead
    In the Long Run We Are All Dead
    Geoff Mann
    Signing Their Lives Away
    Signing Their Lives Away
    Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan
    Signing Their Rights Away
    Signing Their Rights Away
    Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan
    The Soul of America
    The Soul of America
    Jon Meacham
    The Mueller Report
    The Mueller Report
    Special Counsel’s Office Dept of Justice and Robert S. Mueller, III
    Our Lost Declaration
    Our Lost Declaration
    Mike Lee
    A Mighty Long Way
    A Mighty Long Way
    Carlotta Walls LaNier and Lisa Frazier Page
    Municipal Dreams
    Municipal Dreams
    John Boughton
    Firefighting
    Firefighting
    Ben S. Bernanke, Henry M. Paulson, Jr. and Timothy F. Geithner
    Charged
    Charged
    Emily Bazelon
    The Hill to Die On
    The Hill to Die On
    Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman
    Life Will Be the Death of Me
    Life Will Be the Death of Me
    Chelsea Handler
    The Burning Forest
    The Burning Forest
    Nandini Sandar
    On Faith
    On Faith
    Antonin Scalia
    Legislature by Lot
    Legislature by Lot
    Erik Olin Wright and John Gastil

    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

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    Download our Spring Fiction Sampler Now
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    TASTE img

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    LitFlash

    The eBooks you want at the lowest prices

    Read it Forward

    Read it first. Pass it on!