{"product_id":"declaring-independence-why-1776-matters-9781324078975","title":"Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt the beginning of 1776, virtually no one in the colonies was advocating independence: Americans based their grievances against Parliament on their rights as British subjects. By the end of 1776, independence was on every patriot's lips. The many tyrannies of a king had made an independent republic necessary. In \u003cem\u003eDeclaring Independence\u003c\/em\u003e, Edward J. Larson gives us a compact, insightful history of that pivotal year. He traces a narrative arc that runs from the inspiring appeals of Paine's \u003cem\u003eCommon Sense\u003c\/em\u003e in January; through the soaring ideals of midsummer, when the Continental Congress grounded independence in the self-evident truths of human equality and individual rights, and the states wove revolutionary principles of republican government and the rule of law into their new constitutions; to Paine's urgent pleas of December, when \"the times that try men's souls\" required Americans not \"to shrink from the service of their country.\" Dramatic military clashes also punctuate the year: the British evacuation of Boston forced by the brilliant maneuvers of Washington's Army; the Battle of Long Island, a costly defeat that opened New York to British occupation; and the desperate year-end victory of a threadbare American army at Trenton.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombined, these ideals and the sacrifices remind us why, on this anniversary and at this political moment, 1776 matters to all of us.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLarson, Edward J.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eEdward J. Larson\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of many acclaimed works of history, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Scopes trial, \u003cem\u003eSummer for the Gods\u003c\/em\u003e, and the recent study of liberty and slavery at the founding, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Inheritance\u003c\/em\u003e. A chaired professor of history and law at Pepperdine University, Larson lives with his family near Los Angeles.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51705546801426,"sku":"9781324078975","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d5d02183-50f1-4493-8dc0-72163546f58b.jpg?v=1762348887","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/declaring-independence-why-1776-matters-9781324078975","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}