We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Declaration of Independence’s second sentence looms large in American history, just as much for its brilliance and promises as for its contradictions. In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, Walter Isaacson offers a close-reading of one of the country’s most famous founding sentences. In this short, readable book, he reveals the philosophical underpinnings of the sentence and the drafting process which created it. Isaacson places the nation’s founding document firmly in the context of the European Enlightenment, making clear that, while radical, its ideas had its basis in existing thought.
Despite the book’s lofty title, Isaacson does not shy away from the contradictions and unfulfilled promises of the nation’s founding. The prominence of slavery and other forms of violence and injustice are not incidental to the story Isaacson tells, but central to it. Nonetheless, his writing is hopeful, and ends with a call to action for Americans to re-commit to the ideas and promises, fulfilled and unfulfilled, of the nation’s founding.
For readers interested in a deeper analysis of the nation’s founding ideas, consider “The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America” by Jeffrey Rosen.
