(Larger Image)
|
America Declares Independence
by Alan Dershowitz
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Wiley (2003-03-14)
ISBN: 0471264822
EAN: 9780471264828
Dewey Decimal #: 973.313
Hardcover: 172 pages
Edition: 1
SKU: 4N-CISQ-18TZ
Condition: Very Good
Comments: very good exlibrary copy. mylar protective cover usual stamps and stickers. clean bright text and very tight spine.
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
The Declaration of Independence as you’ve never seen it before Some of us cherish it with near-scriptural reverence. Others simply take it for granted. In this contentious new look at the Declaration of Independence, however, celebrated attorney Alan Dershowitz takes "America’s birth certificate" and its principal author, Thomas Jefferson, to task. Dershowitz searches for the sources, history, and underlying reasoning that produced the Declaration and its particular language, from its reference to the "Laws of Nature and Nature’s God" through the long list of complaints against the abuses of King George III. He points out contradictions within the document, notes how the meanings of Jefferson’s words have changed over the centuries, and asks many disturbing questions, including: - Where do rights come from?
- Do we have "unalienable rights"?
- Do rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" have any meaning?
- How could slaveowners claim to believe that "all men are created equal"?
- Is the God of the Declaration the God of the Bible?
- Does the Declaration establish a Christian State?
- Are there "Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God"?
Challenging, upsetting, and controversial, this brilliant polemic may anger you, delight you, or force you to reexamine your opinions. One thing’s for sure: after reading America Declares Independence, you’ll never take the Declaration of Independence for granted again.
|
Customer Reviews
|
A shaply focused look from another angle
Rating  (3)
Date: 2006-01-22
This book will really make you think about the "real" meaning of words in important documents used by Jefferson and others (you would expect that from lawyer at Harvard). Maybe Professor Dershowitz really ends up making a case that we are united under many different "Gods"? But I am not really sure about that. And reading this book a second time will not help. I subtract two stars because the author did not convince about anything.
|
|
A Clear View
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-11-26
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Many may not agree with what this author has to say, but as an historian, I think he has done a superb job delineating the true origins and motivations that went into the writing of America's founding documents. this is an excelent resource to have around if you are confronting right wing fundamentalists who think God founded America.
|
|
reads like a first draft rather than a complete book
Rating (3)
Date: 2003-11-10
4 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dershowitz has some interesting ideas, but does not flesh them out as fully as he could (especially in the first third of the book, focusing on the religious origins of the Declaration). All too often, instead of taking a full quote from Jefferson or Adams and interpreting it, he borrows a few words from some other historian's characterization of what Jefferson thought. As a result, this book is likely to persuade only those who already agree with him; I sense that the publishers made him finish this book a bit too quickly. But Dershowitz's dissection of natural law in the second half of the book is a little more persuasive, because he relies on logic rather than on inadequate research.
|
|
Deplorable History
Rating  (1)
Date: 2003-06-24
10 out of 24 customers found this reveiw helpful
Alan Dershowitz has really outdone himself this time. Although it is true that the "Nature's God" of the Declaration of Independence is not the god of the Bible, and that Jefferson was a Deist,is true overall this book is awful. The most telling feature of this book is Dershowitz's politically correct deconstructionist attack on the concept of natural rights and his assault on Thomas Jefferson.Dershowitz ridicules the concept of people being born with inherent rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". he believes rights are "man made" and have no sacred meaning. He trashed the Declaration's author in the typical modern bolshevik manner by applying the standards of the 21st century to the 18th. He clearly sets out to demolish natural law and the entire tradition of Anglo American libertarian ideals of which Thomas Jefferson was a subscriber. It is amazing that a man like Dershowitz can be so brazen and hypocritical in his evaluation of Jefferson. Dershowitz, critical of Jefferson on slavery, supports "torturing" terrorist suspects, and is a rabid supporter of Isreali despotism in the Middle East. This book show how degenerate the entire history profession has become and how any evaluation of our Founding should be viewed with a jaundiced eye. Overall a horrible piece of nonsense.
|
|
Interesting book
Rating (3)
Date: 2003-06-21
7 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
One the most difficult things to figure out when examining the life of Thomas Jefferson is why he could write such powerful documents, full of respect for human life and human dignity, and still own, at one period of his life, 267 slaves. The author of this book attempts to explain and conjecture his reasons for this, and other things of more relevance to the present time. The author's main emphasis is to negate an idea held in his view by the "Religious Right", namely that the United States is a "Christian country" and was intended to be so by the framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He does so successfully, and gives ample historical references for his arguments. However, individuals like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson cannot be said to represent the entire "Religious Right", even if they claim to, and even if this claim is imputed to them by the author. And further, even though the author has refuted their arguments about the Christian nature of the founding documents, this still does not refute the claim that the United States "should" be a Christian nation. The "Religious Right"could perhaps acknowledge the arguments of the author as true and then consequently advocate the founding documents be rejected and a Christian nation be formed. This has not been suggested yet by the "Religious Right" (that I have heard), but could be in the near future. Religion and toleration are usually immiscible, and if backed into a corner, religion has throughout history proven itself extremely dangerous and has exhibited brutality going beyond all rational bounds.
|
|
|