Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality

by Danielle S. Allen

“Danielle Allen lays bare the Declaration’s history and significance, returning it to its true and rightful owners—you and me.”—Junot Díaz

In just 1,337 words, the Declaration of Independence changed the world, but curiously it is now rarely read from start to finish, much less understood. Unsettled by this, Danielle Allen read the text quietly with students and discovered its animating power. “Bringing the analytical skills of a philosopher, the voice of a gifted memoirist, and the spirit of a soulful humanist to the task, Allen manages to . . . find new meaning in Thomas Jefferson’s understanding of equality,” says Joseph J. Ellis about Our Declaration. Countering much of the popular perception, she restores equality to its rightful place, detailing the Declaration’s case that freedom rests on equality. The contradictions between ideals and reality in a document that perpetuated slavery are also brilliantly tackled by Allen, whose cogently written and beautifully designed book “is must-reading for all who care about the future as well as the origins of America’s democracy” (David M. Kennedy).

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Philosophy, American History, Law, Political Science

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 23, 2014

About the author

Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, is a political theorist who has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought. Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America, Allen is the author of The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (2000), Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs. the Board of Education (2004), Why Plato Wrote (2010), Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014), Education and Equality (2016), and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. (2017). She is the co-editor of the award-winning Education, Justice, and Democracy (2013, with Rob Reich) and From Voice to Influence: Understanding Citizenship in the Digital Age (2015, with Jennifer Light). She is a former Chair of the Mellon Foundation Board, past Chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Dr. Allen received her undergraduate education in Classics at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude. She was awarded an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Classics from Cambridge University and went on to Harvard University, where she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science. She joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1997 as Assistant Professor of Classics. In 2000, Dr. Allen became Associate Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, Political Science and the Committee on Social Thought. In 2003, she was promoted to Professor. The following year she was named Dean of the Division of Humanities, a role she was in until 2007.

Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in ancient Athens and its application to modern America, Dr. Allen was awarded in 2002 a MacArthur Fellowship for her ability to combine "the classicist's careful attention to texts and language with the political theorist's sophisticated and informed engagement."

Reviews

[Mishehu · Rating 2 out of 5]

My second star is for the author's earnest effort. In disappointing truth, I found this a one-star read. I'm not sure who the intended readership for this book is. Nearly 100 of its 282 pages are devoted to a quite interesting (and well written) preamble telling of the Declaration's history. Which leads to a 'close reading" of the text of the Declaration -- the raison d"etre for the book's writing -- that could not have been more remedial, uninformative, and uncompelling. The author exhorts her readers to immerse themselves in the text, and to admire it as she does. I do admire it as she does, and I don't doubt that the immersing she does as a scholar of political of theory yields fascinating results in her scholarship. But in this popular effort, the results couldn't be blander. Indeed, for the crushing banality of the author's treatment of the Declaration -- an uninspired "close reading" nearly devoid (intentionally) of historical context -- the book had the opposite effect on this reader than the author intended. I cannot fathom that a luminary in her field of study, a MacArthur genius award winner no less, produced this book, nor the gushing blurbs that fellow luminaries of hers provided for the book jacket. I credit the author with good intentions, but that's about as much crediting as I can muster. And I"ll fault the author and her publisher for what struck me as a cynical publishing ploy: whole passages of Declaration text are repeated ad nauseum throughout the book, unnecessarily. In addition, the book is larded with photographs of period documents that do nothing to illuminate the author's arguments. They're pure padding. Pleasing to look at, but padding. Allen is no doubt more than capable of writing a great popular treatment of her subject. This book, however, couldn't be a further cry from such a treatment. Awful.

[Shai Sachs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book critically examines the Declaration of Independence, using the tools of literary analysis to argue that equality is a precondition for freedom, rather than an obstacle to it.

This argument is a compelling one, since it flies in the face of contemporary political philosophy; it's fairly commonplace to argue that equality imposes constraints on individual freedom. Allen's argument is that freedom is not possible without equality, and to make the point she examines five facets of equality which the Declaration of Independence draws upon. I think the result is a fairly convincing thesis, although it is quite limited in scope. This book's analysis of equality is about procedural equality, that is, the equality of all people in their right to participate in the political process. That is certainly an important form of equality, and it would have been very novel in 1776; but in 2017 the belief in procedural equality is just about universal, thankfully. In our time, debates tend to be about the conflict between individual freedom and substantive equality - a guaranteed standard of living. That is why left-wing politicians so often take pains to clarify that they support equality of opportunity - it's thought to be less burdensome to individual freedom than equality of outcomes. Allen really didn't address the concept of substantive equality here. That's fine, given that the Declaration of Independence doesn't really have much to say about substantive equality; but on the other hand, it also limits the degree to which this argument is really ground-breaking for our time.

I quite enjoyed the discussion of the drafting process that led to the finished document - Allen calls it democratic writing, but more often it's referred to as drafting by committee. I wish she had gone into more depth as to the substance of these debates, and had focused less on the process behind them, because it sounds like there were some very interesting choices made along the way. For example, the introduction of religious language was done deliberately but in quite a nuanced fashion; I would have liked to learn more about the reasoning behind that choice.

The substance of Allen's analysis of the text is excellent, although a bit drawn-out at times. Her comparison of the text to a marriage ritual is certainly unique, and it makes a lot of sense - but I think she extends it so far as to make it a distraction. Likewise with the imagery of rivers and the concept of navigation and course correction. This concept is really useful, and the historical allusion behind it is quite revealing; but the pace of analysis gets bogged down in this metaphor. On the other hand, I really liked the way that Allen draws out the syllogism in the first paragraph, and contextualizes it within the world of 18th century thought. Moreover, the elucidation of the bill of particulars is nothing short of masterful. I'll be honest, I've always glossed over that part, but Allen's analysis really brings a lot of insight and historical acumen to this section of the text.

On the whole I found this book quite fascinating. The language was a bit awkward and academic, which was a little distracting. And the argument is perhaps less grandiose than promised. But it's a trenchant and revealing look at a founding document which deserves this kind of thorough reading.

[FyzaReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had purchased this book a couple of years ago after listening to the author Danielle Allen on KQED's July 4th special show on The Forum. I found her quest to encourage people to do a slow reading of the Declaration of Independence quite intriguing and kept her book on my list to read on the 4th of July weekend.

So finally this 4th of July I picked up her book off my shelf and found it to be exactly how I had imagined it to be. Danielle Allen is currently a Professor of Government at Harvard. The slow reading of the Declaration was in fact a class she had taught at University of Chicago for a decade. The interesting part is that she taught two sessions of this class; one in the morning for the regular University students and one at night for the general working class public. She wanted to showcase to these wide range of people the argument of political equality that the Declaration of Independence makes; and by this she means a kind of equality where one not only is free from domination but also plays an role in architecting the world around them.

In the book she takes the reader on a journey of critically reading the Declaration. She does not spend much time explaining the historical background of the Declaration as her goal is to focus on mainly the logical argument of the document. In each chapter she analyzes words of a single sentence, looking carefully at their latin roots and their use in the context of the Revolution. By following this process through the whole of the document she then deciphers the document fully and puts forth for us the coherent philosophical argument of the Declaration which states is:
"Equality has precedence over freedom; only on the basis of equality can freedom be securely achieved."

Declaration is not just a document for the United States, it is a document for the world. It helps us stop for a moment and think critically about our government, our lives, and the world around us. Through this process we come to realize the meaning of freedom and equality, and we find the strength to fight for these words.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torn on this one. Reading our founding documents carefully is good! Reading old documents through a twenty first century lens as if that is how their writers intended is bad. Pondering sentence structure is good! Ignoring most history *intentionally and explicitly* to basically surmise what happened is bad. Pondering the contradictions of these documents is good. Reading documents written by men steeped in metaphysics and entirely ignoring and disregarding metaphysics is bad.

And this last point is particularly frustrating - reading text in the absence of context, particularly reading political philosophy without taking the authors’ philosophical priors seriously, will lead you to odd conclusions.

Conclusions which are not self evident.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisitely clever and clear philosophical exegesis of Jefferson et al. It is easy, even customary, to treat the Declaration of Independence and its best-known phrases as empty cliches or as simple hypocrisy. Allen demonstrates that they can, in face, hold up under sustained, detailed reading, and that they offer a specific enough account of equality and freedom for practical use. Equality, for instance, rests fundamentally in each person being the best judge of their own happiness. Allen is especially good on the already-collective character of the Declaration, as a memo written by committee and perfected in a legislature-- which makes its claims of a new solidarity more credible, not less, since it emerges from consensus.

A favorite detail, new to me here: Not only did Jefferson originally denounce slavery at length, in a paragraph cut in Congress; he also referred to slavery as "traffic in men," when, as he knew better than anyone, it was also a traffic in women. So "men" is clearly "humanity" in the "all ... created equal" clause too. Not a feminist locution today, but satisfying to know what the authors intended on that score, even if their practice belied it in many ways.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This text is an excellent example of what a close reading of a text - a reading that focus on the text itself and not on, say, the historical context or the psychological profile, so to speak, of the author(s) - looks like. - I also learned several things about the Declaration that I did not know already.

[Isaac Schreacke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal guide into a deep reading of the declaration and the minds of the founders on what they thought the goals of the nation shall be. I have read the declaration many times, but never this thoroughly. I applaud the depth and dives into specifics on choices of words and grammar because this vital document is not read by many anymore and it is apparent by the situation we find ourselves in currently.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

An accessible, yet profound, reading of the philosophy and logic underlying the Declaration of Independence. Allen deftly and sensitively makes the case that equality and liberty are both necessary foundations for a democratic society. It is an equality that both respects and values difference. One that argues that only when we value each other sufficiently to listen can we jointly create a government to protect all our rights.

I wish she would have included a reference to the distinction between liberty and licence that Locke establishes and haunted many of the founders, but she was trying to insert as few outside sources as possible to enable the reader to focus on the text of the Declaration itself as closely as possible.

[Lee Downen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danielle Allen claims that the Declaration of Independence is a "model of political judgment" (230). Her own book, Our Declaration , is a model of close reading. In it, she labors lovingly over the Declaration's 1337 words, hoping that her readers will be persuaded by its "syllogism" for political equality and will come to embrace the document as part of their own patrimony. If they do, they will have "a foundation from which to assess the state of their political world," and they will gain "a vocabulary and rhetorical techniques for arguing about it" (35).

The book is organized into eight parts and fifty concise, lucid chapters. Allen does provide a brief account of the Declaration's origins, especially its authorship, but her main concern is with its "logical argument...and the conceptual terrain of its metaphors" (43). Going line-by-line (and often word-by-word), she carefully considers how the Declaration "announces and, thereby, brings about a change, while also explaining it" (86). It effects this change by "declaring reasons or principles, presenting facts, declaring independence, and pledging solidarity" (98). In response, it invites "a candid world" to judge the colonists' case and recognize "the united [sic] States of America" as "Free and Independent States."

As the subtitle indicates, Allen provides a reading of the Declaration "in [d]efense of [e]quality." She focuses on equality because she thinks that it has been neglected in our national conversation over the past few decades. And, often, it has been presented in opposition to freedom. You can have freedom or you can have equality. So pick. Allen thinks this is a false binary, though, claiming that “equality is the bedrock of freedom” (108). What's at stake if we lose sight of this reality? “If we abandon equality," Allen contends, "we lose the single bond that makes us a community, that makes us a people with the capacity to be free collectively and individually in the first place” (23). Equality and freedom are twinned concepts. So pick both or have neither.

What does equality mean for Allen? It means "equal political empowerment," which refers both to freedom from domination and the freedom to engage in "the work of creating and constantly re-creating [one's own] community" (34). Allen explicates its basis and consequences, and offers clarifications about what it does not mean. The basis for equality in the Declaration, Allen tries to show, is the fact that we are all equal in our ability to judge our own happiness. "Equal" here does not mean that we have the same (or an identical) ability; it means that we have "an equivalent degree of some specific quality or attribute." Allen admits that self-knowledge and conversation with others are important to this work of judgment (188).

Allen claims that, in the facts (or grievances) that the colonists present against King George III, we can see five facets of the ideal equality for which the Declaration argues. Since we are all equal in the work of judging our own happiness, we all have a right to 1) non-domination, 2) equal access to the tools of government, 3) egalitarian approaches to collective intelligence, 4) egalitarian practices of reciprocity, and 5) shared ownership of public life and the co-creation of our common world (108-109). She clarifies that political equality does not mean "equal in all respects, equal in wealth, equal in military might, or equal in power. It means equal as a power" (122).

The most curious part of Allen's book is her treatment of the Declaration's phrase "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." She argues that we can understand the rights that flow from "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" in two different ways: as based on religious convictions or as based on a utilitarian calculation about what is most likely to ensure our own survival over time. In a way that is quite clever, she abstracts the Declaration's religious language, claiming,

You do not need to be a theist to accept the argument of the Declaration. You do, however, require an alternative ground for a maximally strong commitment to the right of other people to survive and to govern themselves. One needs a reason to commit to other people's survival and freedom so strong as to command one's reverence. One way or another, one must hold sacred the flourishing of others. (138)

Allen seems to be quite clear about the issue. She recognizes that rights-talk does much work in the Declaration (168ff) and that our "certain unalienable rights" come from a Creator (170). She also recognizes that, "[i]f our rights are just a matter of our willingness to protect ourselves," it is not clear how we differ animals (which would be "pretty disappointing") (176). At this point, I will admit that I am not sure that I understand her argument. First, she (or, I suppose, the Declaration read by her) claims that we are more than animals because our "self-protective instincts are channeled into a distinctively human activity: politics" (176). We possess "self-consciousness about social organization" and a "wakefulness" about our relationship to power. This "wakefulness" allows us to organize ourselves and set up institutions "so that [we] can all collectively protect [our]selves without having to fight with each other." We're able to mediate our relationships with one another peaceably. Second, she claims that this "instinct for politics...is evidence that nature is organized to provide for our flourishing" (177). Thus, we're different from other animals, even if "our inalienable rights are rights only because we are reliably our own protectors and enforcers of them."

I do not see how human beings' mere ability to cooperate upholds their status as rights-bearing creatures. “Our shared status is," Allen comments, "that of being creatures endowed with the same set of inalienable rights” (172). Once the commitment to recognize others' moral status is abstracted from a narrative in which they are creatures, why should we think that the commitment retains the same ethical force? To pursue this question further would take us deep into the hinterland of ethical theory, but I think that it is a matter that must be taken up by those who want to find "an alternative ground for a maximally strong commitment to the right of other people to survive and to govern themselves" (138). Allen has written a remarkable book, one that I will happily recommend to others, but I do not think that she has been successful in showing that there is, in fact, a stable "alternative ground" to the Creator of whom the Declaration speaks.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Our declaration reads much like a book report from someone who didnt read the book. Allens work is guided by questions which, presumably, no one is asking, and answers, which, are basic in scope.

This book caught my intention when it promised to dismantle the dicotomy between liberty and equality. Instead, Allen does little more than lay out its details.

Its alot of, 'The declaration is alot like a dadhboard, with indicators that all work together', 'the declaration is like a birthday cake, its prepared with the intention to be shared by everyone', 'The declaration is alot like a lobster in an aquarium in a grocery store, the fate of the lobsters had been forseen' 'the decleration is alot like 2 large two topping pizzas from papa johns, the pieces are cut equally'

The book is probably best when read in early highschool.

Oh BUT, the epilouge describes an argument Allen had on the internet which was actually interesting. She says the incident happened in 2012 and, since the book was bublished in 2015, i wholly believe it was the inspiration for the books being.

Would have been really cool if the epilouge was put up front. Then, provide an argument about the importance of equality in the decleration; How punctuation degregates our interrprutations and permeates into our discourse. approaching further and further into libertarian ideals.

[Natalie Rooney · Rating 2 out of 5]

"By reading the Declaration slowly, we help ourselves as readers. We help ourselves as writers. We deepen our capacity for moral reflection - for making good judgments about our own actions and those of others. Most importantly, we grow as citizens. In coming to understand political equality, we grasp how to make it real for ourselves and others. We come to feel its necessity."
➖➖➖
After such a promising passage like that, I had pretty high hopes for this book. Sadly, the close reading was way too close to be enjoyable. The author over-scrutinizes every word and is far too repetitious for my taste. Although I am glad I read the Declaration time and time again as I made my way through this book, I would have preferred to examine it in a different way.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book that analyzes the Declaration of Independence and, none of us think about this, but defines the different parts of the nation's birth certificate. Good read for not only those interested in American history, but for all Americans. In fact, I encourage everyone to read the Declaration of Independence every July 4th; you never get the same thing out of it two times in a row.

[Brad Walters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. While the historical research and textual analysis was occasionally interesting, the majority of the text alternates between easily refutable fluff and pointlessly detailed explication of the Declaration that borders on being absurd. This should have been a 10-page paper, not a 282-page book.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason I didn't give a one star rating is out of respect to the founding fathers. The writing style, with the use of outlandish analogies and over-the-top analysis, made this a tiresome read. I willed myself to get halfway through this bore before finally calling it quits.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maddening. Allen gives us a superb reading of arguably the single most important document in American history, but her writing is dull, repetitive, and occasionally ludicrous in its choices of vocabulary, argumentative direction, and figures of speech.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two recurring thoughts struck me while reading Our Declaration: one, this is a writerly analysis of the Declaration of Independence; and two, Danielle Allen’s meditation feels like a Heideggerian deep dive into the meaning of equality. Both of these are good thoughts, as I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Writing figures prominently in Our Declaration as Allen uses the process of composing as a metaphor for the Democratic process of governing. Allen is herself a writing professor, and the origins of her book are derived from her experiences teaching diverse students to become writers through the study of different texts. Through the lens of a teacher of writing, Allen describes the composition of the Declaration as a democratic process in which the work is described as a product of collective action arising out of personal experiences and beliefs being put to paper and then subjected to editorial decisions, word selection and collaborative suggestions. This democratic process is enacted equally when a working adult returns to school at night to take a college course and discusses their writing with a professor and classmates or when Thomas Jefferson is tasked with writing the initiating document of an independent United States along with John Adams and Ben Franklin. Indeed, one of the joys of the book comes toward the end as she discusses crowdsourcing in the 1770’s as members of the Continental Congress surveyed, conversed with and collected stories of British oppression which would form the list of the 18 reasons for declaring King George a tyrant and the American revolt just. Allen describes writing as a communal effort and the community of writers and editors becomes a metaphor for Democracy itself, the community of citizens discussing, arguing over, compromising, and working through the challenges of both political action and its written justifications.

This emphasis on how meaning is arrived at through writing as a collective effort lends itself to the phenomenological uncovering of language, meaning and being in Heidegger’s philosophical thoughts. Indeed, this Heideggerian side of the text calls to mind Richard Bernstein’s analysis and critique of Heidegger’s Question Concerning Technology in The New Constellation. Allen’s question concerning equality feels almost as if it is a pastiche of Heidegger’s style of unearthing meaning. Instead of a meditation on the encounter of unconcealment as the history of being and language, we have a meditation on the encounter with the Declaration as the history of equality and freedom. Instead of Greek etymologies, we have Latin etymologies. Instead of the pre-Socratics, we have the political philosophy of the enlightenment. Instead of images of the German Volk in their everydayness, we have images of men and women of contemporary and colonial America in their everydayness. Instead of the founding story of the history of technology as Enframing; we have the founding story of the history of Equality and America as both a nation and as an idea. And throughout, like Heidegger, Allen massages meaning through circling each word, each line, each phrasing, each nuance and metaphor to describe a text in which the Declaration of Independence reveals being in the world.

As I thought through Allen’s pastiche, it came to stand as an example of the revealing of being as Ethos rather than Poesis, a moment in the history of being that reveals Equality as the horizon and the unconcealment of the truth of freedom. This notion that equality is unconcealment of freedom plays to the history of the United States in which the founding document declares that all people are created equal and government is founded on such a self-evident truth and to the history of the United States in which chattel slavery is written into the Constitution and permeates the history of freedom. I do not know enough of Professor Allen’s background to know if Heidegger’s philosophy was considered as she was writing this book (thought she certainly knows her Aristotle), but the value of this text, like all texts, lies in the way that the democratic conversation that yielded this book also calls forth conversation, thoughts and contention in the process of democracy and the public sphere. A gem of a book.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this close reading of the Declaration of Independence, the author argues that “equality” should be considered as an intended aspiration on a level equal to “liberty.” It is the latter principle which most people focus on in their reading and in particular, Allen sets equality in opposition to “libertarianism,” which has gained much purchase in recent popular sentiment. The broad implications of that distinction are not spelled out - that would require a separate book, I’m sure - but her main argument is different in any case. She emphasizes how important it is for everyone to have a voice in the political discussion. Her reading argues that the document itself embodies this goal. “The Declaration brings to light the incandescent magic of human politics: the fact that it is possible for people, with ideas, conversations, and decision-making committees - both formal and informal - to weave together an agreement that can define our common life.”

A good part of early portion of the book describes the process of collection of information by the Continental Congress, and the writing of the Declaration, with examples of editing, both in the draft and printing stages.

This list of grievances [that follow the second paragraph] was built out of much conversation. It reflects time spent comparing notes about experiences with the king’s officers. This list, in other words is an example of the kind of knowledge that a community produces, when a multitude of eyes and ears collect evidence and collaborate through conversation to figure out what it all means.

Only when people - each with an experience of one aspect of King George’s rule - could gather to talk about how life was going could they, together, assemble the puzzle.

Allen is a professor of government and the book has the character of a teaching document. She makes this explicit at the start when she describes how she had students - both gifted youngsters at the University of Chicago as well as adult-education students with life experience - study the Declaration. In this book, she pretty much takes the reader by the hand to lead her through a carefully examined reading. (It is not a typical scholarly book: the chapters are short and do not assume broad historical knowledge.) There are many interesting observations along the way:
for example, she observes that the document has the structure of a memorandum. Despite all this, I am not completely convinced that equality (in its many senses) truly is on an equal footing with liberty here. It may be in part her wanting it to be true. Part of the issue may be that equality is a less well-defined concept, although she does define it by giving its various relevant meanings. But she makes an eloquent and evocative case for it. And she can make thought-provoking observations which pertain to the Declaration but also have the broadest generality. It’s hard to stop quoting, but here is a last one:

In order for a moral idea to become real in the world, it must trail after it a multitude of concrete actions. The project of reimagining and reinventing the web of habits that bring ideas to life in the world is vast, even infinite.
An idea is weak until people can imagine in concrete terms the specific actions they will undertake under its ascendancy.

[Sanjay Vyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A discussion on how the founding fathers' declaration of independence was predicated on equality. The argument she makes is using logic and common experiences. She does not cite evidence outside of the text of the declaration itself. That is NOT a knock; I am merely sharing that as you consider reading this book.

The author does a great job of thinking carefully about the facets of equality. And, for that reason alone, this book is worth reading. She lists 5 facets of equality. From Chapter 49*, the Founders assumed or asserted:
- equality among other countries
- equality among people, as we are all assumed to have the ability to judge what will make us happy and what the future holds;
- equality among people, in the sense we all have lived experiences that give a fuller picture of reality (epistemic egalitarianism)
- equality of agency; the Founders assumed we are equal in the expectation of how we communicate. Reciprocity is assumed; if we complain to an equal, the expectation is that they consider the complaint.
- lastly, equality of commitment: when people commit all of their resources, as did the Founders, they have earned the right to ownership.

With this said, the book was a bit of a labor to read, and that's a shortcoming I have. I am less interested in philosophical arguments. To the author's credit: each chapter is only a few pages long. She has endeavored to make this readable. I truly appreciate it.

Lastly, if you start the book and start to wane in your interest, please read chapter 44. In that chapter, Dr. Allen explores the gap between what's written by the founders and their actions. Namely, they extolled equality, yet some held slaves. Her addressing that issue was courageous, and very insightful. It's a short chapter, 6 pages. I want to excerpt the whole thing, but my hand would hurt. :)
But, in a nutshell, she makes this argument, to me persuasively: "So let me put it this way. When we observe a person who says one thing and does another, we might be looking at a liar, but we might also be looking at a person who hasn't yet been able to turn her ideas into a script that is concrete enough to guide her actions." Earlier in the chapter, she talks about people who are environmentally conscious (recycling) but also driving a gas-powered-car (I'm taking creative license). I think we can all relate to that: over time, we will get closer to our ideal.
Slave-holding and environmental issues are different of course. Dr. Allen is pointing out the gap between our ideals and our actions. It's not always hypocrisy, sometimes it's a lag in time. I think that calls us to consider grace and not vitriol as our only response.

* Chapters are typically 5 pages long.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most intellectually challenging but simultaneously enjoyable books I have read in an extraordinarily long time. It is the kind of book I had to stop reading after about 11 p.m. on any given night because of the intricate and complex thoughts inside it. I find myself reaching for the right superlatives to put on it, because most of them are used in the reviews excerpted at the front of the book, and all of them fit.

(I probably should note here because of my job that Danielle Allen is considering a bid for governor in Massachusetts, and n0thing in this review should be read as endorsement or criticism of her candidacy or her policies. This is solely about the book, which has been praised by commentators on all parts of the political spectrum.)

The brilliance of Allen's book is that she confines her search for the meaning of equality almost entirely to the four corners of the Declaration of Independence. She brings in outside ideas, to the extent that she does, almost entirely to provide context or examples of what the Founders were saying. And by doing so, she comes to a construction of equality that is both thoroughly modern and wholly faithful to the intent of the Founders at the same time.

That is not to say that Allen shies away from the hard aspects of the founding. Allen, a mixed-race African-American (her characterization), recounts her initial hesitance about the document before she began her exploration of it. And she wrestles more than once with the fact that the primary author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, was a slaveholder who would not have considered many Americans today to be worthy of the freedoms he was writing about. She never really comes to a clean resolution about this conflict, which almost becomes the point of her discussion about it.

At a time when the ideas of the Declaration and to whom they apply are being fiercely contested, Allen's analysis of them could serve as a peaceful resolution of the claims for a vast majority (though probably not all) of Americans on both the right and the left, if they were inclined to reach a settlement right now. There are few if any policy proposals in this book, because that is not really the point. For the most part, good-faith thinkers on both the right and the left could use the ideas in this book to advance their platforms. Instead, it is aimed at trying to bring forward a common understanding of where we came from and how to apply it to our present and future, a challenging prospect that would have eluded less talented writers. Fortunately, Allen is an extremely talented writer, though she works at such a high level that you should make sure you have the time and mental energy to devote to the book before diving in.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

For such a serious subject, this is a very accessible book. Written in simple prose with short sentences in short chapters with generous visual breaks including engaging pictures, Allen's approach is democratic. That is, she attempts to walk her talk.

So, to walking her talk: Her talk, or her point, is that the Declaration of Independence should be, and can be, read by anybody. You don't need a lot of historical background to understand it. You can just examine the document's philosophy of government. And that philosophy is that liberty and equality are not competing, but complementary, values. This point is timely, since America today seems to be living in a very libertarian moment, where liberty seems to be more popular than equality.

Then, back to walking her talk: Her talk, her main point, is that the Declaration, and thus the founding purpose of the United States, is to promote liberty and equality together. Allen's walk, then, is to make this point in a friendly and accessible way, open perhaps to the adult ed students that she mentions in her introduction.

If you are a history buff like me, you may feel that the book misses some important details of who, what, where, when. But you can get that in plenty of other books about American history. Allen is trying to make the Declaration and the philosophy of America's founding accessible to a wider audience, and I hope she's successful. For my part, I skimmed over some sections that seemed too basic, but perhaps they form a good introduction for other readers.

Fewer than half of American college students have read all 1,337 words of the Declaration. And even fewer have read them closely, as Allen helps us to do. She thinks that the document is not just a statement of liberty and equality but an exercise in democratic governance, both in its writing and in its reading. That's why this document has been so influential here and across the globe in the past and why it remains relevant today -- and not just for the kind of white men who wrote it but for all Americans and all people. As a mixed race person, Allen announces that the Declaration is her patrimony as much as anyone else's and I agree.

[Analiese Pappas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The synopsis of this book gave me some high hopes of examining the Declaration of Independence in a different way, but the "close reading" of the Declaration was very repetitive and on the dry side, in my opinion. I found some of the arguments a tad bit of a stretch and sort of contradictory, as certain forms of egalitarianism created by an oligarchy or group of people can potentially infringe upon and interfere with "We the people's" God-given rights and possibly undermine the fact that we are all created free and equal in rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and opportunity for growth and accomplishment. I also wish it had focused more on the historical facts behind the document and historical context because I believe they are vital to a valid understanding of such a central and important document in our history. In my opinion, Danielle Allen appropriately focuses on equality and its role in our country and our nation's values; however, sometimes she doesn't elaborate on how freedom and equality work together, instead focusing only on equality when you can't have one without the other (such as how our value of each individual's freedom and God-given rights laid the foundation for the fight for equality and freedom during the Civil War, etc.) Although I did think it was cool how she explained how "Men" in the Declaration truly refers to ALL PEOPLE (women, people of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, etc.) Allen builds a good philosophical argument and offers a fascinating perspective of "Our Declaration" that really emphasizes the importance of equality among independent citizens and the role it played in developing the United States. This book poses great conversation/debate topics and makes you question what you believe and thoroughly examine our nation's founding principles regardless of whether you agree with the book's main thesis.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Danielle Allen's thesis is that the Declaration of Independence is a document infused by, and dedicated to, the idea of equality. In addition to the famous "all men are created equal", she identifies the equality of nations and the equality of individual's ability to determine their own happiness, among other varieties of equality. She argues that equality and freedom are inseparable in the written text of the Declaration of Independence, and that neither can truly exist as a fundamental American value without the other.

This is an interesting argument, and encouraged me to consider aspects of the Declaration that I often overlook.

However, ultimately I think Allen commits a sin familiar to anyone who's spent too long in a college literature class, which is of interpreting the text beyond utility. There's no denying that there's a logic to Allen's interpretation. But I have a hard time believing that it's the logic that drove its writers. And if that's the case, then what's the significance of Allen's interpretation? She's claiming an interpretation that would fundamentally upend how we consider the Declaration of Independence, and I'd like to believe her, but I simply don't buy her argument. It's an interesting thought experiment, but it doesn't reflect the lived reality of that document either in history or the present. As I say, that's a shame, because her interpretation could revitalize our civic discourse about equality, were it to gain currency. But simply stating that it's how one should read the Declaration doesn't make it so.

[Joe Schilp · Rating 4 out of 5]

First and foremost, everyone should read the Declaration of Independence and know what it means. Sadly, half of America has never read it, and that's atrocious. What the heck is going on in schools that kids have had no time by 8th grade to have read the Declaration of Independence. It's only 1,377 words.

The author does a great job of breaking down the text, line by line, sometimes word by word. That said, she's an academic, and as is often the case with academia, she is long-winded and absolutely convinced that her reading of the document is the correct one. She even admits to bloviating at one point. I'm OK with it because, in all honesty, it only takes 2-3 days to read this book, so I don't care that it's probably 30 pages longer than it needs to be. Just know that it can be repetitious at times.

As for her take on the Declaration, I doubt Jefferson & Co. were thinking about her 5 examples of equality in the Declaration even though she makes some good points about equality.

The Declaration of Independence is one of the greatest documents in world history and anyone who's never read the Declaration - half of America - would benefit from reading Our Declaration by Allen. I'd estimate that half of the word's population is not permitted to, or has access to, the Declaration, so we should all take advantage of the freedom we have to read, understand, and live by its ideals.

[Charles Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was open to Ms Allen’s argument about reading the Declaration while also being a little put off by the certainty expressed about the nature and purpose of the document. I can now declare that all those concerns were overblown and misguided. As someone who has read the Declaration’s 1337 words several times, who places a replica parchment copy on an easel at my July 4th parties, I enthusiastically support and recommend this book.
The author concludes, in her epilogue, that…”the Declaration itself acknowledges the complex entanglement of ideals with desire. Human beings, it argues, are masters enough of their own fate to inch their way toward happiness-this is a supremely optimistic document. At the same time, though, it makes clear that the best we can do is inch in that direction. Humans are long suffering; evils are long suffered. The Declaration reins in its own optimism . On its own it admits the halting, partial nature of human progress…..The Declaration tells the truth about itself.”
The author makes clear the inconsistencies, yes the absolute hypocrisy of the Founders over the meaning of equality, and yet she enlarges the meaning of equality to get at the heart of what sets the Declaration apart.
I feel better, prouder and more amazed than before I read it about the genius of the company of men who wrote this, with the input of all the colonies as they faced the ultimate decision of their lives.

[Mary Louise Schumacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the questions we ask people as part of the #thisismilwaukee project is this: “What is democracy for you?” The “for you” part is our attempt to get beyond the textbook definitions and get at how Milwaukeeans connect with the idea of democracy, how it is part of their lives and stories. It is a seemingly simple question without easy answers. Danielle Allen’s “Our Declaration,” recommended to us by Arijit Sen, is a close read of that most fundamental of documents and an enlightened work of scholarship around this very question. There is so much in those 1,337 words, a plumb line against which we can judge society and ourselves. One of the lingering questions is about how a society founded so squarely on the notion equality could be and remain so persistently unequal. Or, put another way, in the language of Hannah Arendt: How could our country comply with terror and genocide for so long? Allen shares a vision of democracy as the co-creation and co-ownership of a shared world, one in which liberty and equality are not at war with each other. So much of the work of democracy is done, she also details, through the craft of storytelling and political conversation among Americans whose experiences and critiques of their government should hold equal weight. "Our Declaration" is part on our #thisismilwaukee reading list. More about this from me and Kevin Miyazaki soon.

[Franz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allen's book is a profound meditation on the U.S.'s seminal founding document. This is the best book on the subject I've read. She analyzes the meaning of each sentence, savoring the key words like slices of crisp bacon. As suggested by the subtitle, she sees the Declaration as emphasizing equality as a necessary condition for freedom, not its rival. To support her argument, she follows the development of the Declaration from ideas by Jefferson and others in their writings in the 1770s. She notes that although Jefferson wrote the rough draft of the Declaration, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and other members of the committee assigned the task of writing the Declaration also made important additions and subtractions. Then the full Continental Congress also made some key changes. Every step of the drafting, Allen shows, plants the Declaration's roots of equality ever deeper. This is an exhilarating read that digs deep into the politics and history of America's most important and inspirational document.

[Jack Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shamefully, at 70 years of age, I had never read the Declaration of Independence (DoI). When I was in high school, I was incorrigible, truant, and always swam against the flow. Now, I realize the error of my ways, and I decided to complete one of many of my outstanding high school assignments. How many of us have read the DoI? Allen asks; is the DoI an historical event or a philosophical statement. I would have to go with the latter, but I went with the former before this reading. Allen argues that the correct way to read the DoI is slowly. Read it slowly and take it apart sentence by sentence. She guides us expertly. She asks us to think about the deeper meaning of words like equality, reciprocity, and egalitarianism; she also closely examines what she refers to as collective intelligence, and the art of democratic writing demonstrated by the "group of five" who wrote the DoI. Allen has this one interesting idiosyncrasy of alternating the pronouns he and she throughout the book. I got a kick out of that. Egalitarian for sure.

[Andrew Meunier · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few chapters into this book, I realized that Allen's approach to her topic was unique. The full text of the Declaration is featured early on and many chapters are spent focusing on single sentences (or even phrases) of the text. The chapters are quite short and the Declaration is quoted frequently, in some cases even repetitively. The writing is conversational and Allen poses straightforward questions throughout, leading the reader through possible arguments and rebuttals. The story of her own growing understanding of the Declaration is compelling and heartfelt.

This wasn't always a page turner. I had to be in the right mood to process some of the points Allen brings up and the short chapters actually gave me too many "outs," as in "this is a good place to stop and do that thing I just remembered I have to do." I'm glad I made it through though and think that this is a book very much worth reading (as is the Declaration itself!).

My longer review with some other commentary is here:
https://www.dustdisciple.com/post/dan...

[Eavan Wong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extraordinary piece of scholarship. A very smart move indeed, but I am just not so convinced that we should hold so much hope in the political efficacy of conversations within the "common" (here, through the reclaiming and democratization of the sacred text, Declaration of Independence). To include the margins to the "we" sounds like a very familiar project of "governance" that Moten and Harney so thoughtfully sketched and criticized.

The question is, where are the undercommons? Who identify with this "we"? To Allen, it seems that the lack of social and political cohesion in this country is a problem to "solve" right away via political conversation between "institutions, civil society, and culture"(with feasibility) more than a fact to contemplate on more deeply.

This is the project she is working on: https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpo...

[James Schisler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is shockingly readable for what it is. Multiple times I found myself saying “one more chapter”. Allen’s careful work helped me better understand how she sees equality, how she views political participation as core to ensuring democracy, and how those are reflected in the Declaration.

I’d never read the Declaration closely, though I have read it before. I’ve read much more American revolutionary history than the average bear, but I definitely learned things from the history section of this book. The close reading was also helpful, though it certainly took more reads through to get a handle on.

On the whole, I am just shocked by the quality of Allen’s work here. It’s clear, it’s compelling, it’s shockingly readable. Allen’s an exceptional thinker and a gifted writer. It’s a privilege to read her work, and our society would be better if more of us read more of her work.