The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas

‘Carl Becker explains the Declaration as a classic document of the Age of Enlightenment, a conscious product of the natural rights philosophy of John Locke and other British thinkers, and a text that spoke powerfully to an international audience.’ The New York Times

This important study of the Declaration of Independence compares early drafts of the Declaration with the final version to discuss what influenced its conception; why it came about; and how it was interpreted by successive generations.

Drawing on key philosophers of the Enlightenment period, such as Descartes, Rousseau, and John Locke, Becker explores the revolutionary tradition in the Western world, which for the American Founding Fathers was inspired heavily by the earlier Civil Wars in England, and the protest writers of pre-Revolutionary France.

Becker’s thought-provoking analysis of the Declaration makes clear its importance to both the students of American history and of liberty.

‘Still one of the great analyses of the Declaration of Independence explaining section by section the history and philosophy behind it.’ Library Thing

Carl Lotus Becker (September 7, 1873 – April 10, 1945) was an American historian. He was John Wendell Anderson Professor of History in the Department of History at Cornell University from 1917 to 1941. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1923. He was best known for The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (1932), four lectures on The Enlightenment delivered at Yale University, and this work, The Declaration of Independence—A Study in the History of Political Ideas was first published in 1922.

When Carl L. Becker's classic study of the text of the Declaration of Independence first appeared in 1922, it marked a great departure from the passionate and patriotic tenor of many existing historical analyses. Becker claims his work was well received by all reviewers save one, who criticized its preoccupation with hard cold documents. In the 1941 introduction to this edition, Becker defends his approach, stating: "I was aware that men had bled and died for freedom.... But on this occasion I chose to write a book about the document itself ... a state paper of sufficient renown to be classed with the world's classics of political literature."

Becker describes the rhythm of the first line of the Declaration of Independence as "that felicitous, haunting cadence which is the peculiar quality of Jefferson's best writing." He goes on to define the purpose of the document, its views, where those views arose, and how succeeding generations have accepted or modified them. Chapters such as "Historical Antecedents of the Declaration: The Natural Rights Philosophy," "Drafting the Declaration; The Literary Qualities of the Declaration," and "The Philosophy of the Declaration in the Nineteenth Century" distinguish this book as one of the most complete studies of America's--and arguably the world's--most important historical document.