American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
This is a well-written, well-researched, entertaining account of the creation of the United States'  Declaration of Independence as well as an analysis of how the declaration has been enshrined as something  of a sacred document (a place it did not always hold). Pauline Maier, a history professor at MIT, will no  doubt surprise many readers with detective work demonstrating that Jefferson's Declaration of  Independence was actually preceded by many local declarations, which have been generally overlooked by  historians but which were published throughout the colonies and were well known in their day.American Scriptureholds many surprises as it details Jefferson's drafting of the document, the  editing process, and the varying regard with which the Declaration of Independence has been held in the  past two centuries.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.