For Liberty and Equality: The Life and Times of the Declaration of Independence
"[An] exceptional history of the Declaration in American political rhetoric... Alexander Tsesis meticulously details how the Declaration of Independence has stimulated and justified reform movements throughout American history." --Tulsa Law Review"Utilizing speeches and newspaper articles, Tsesis traces the importance of the Declaration of Independence as the purveyor of 'transcendent' American norms...Recommended." --CHOICE"Tsesis provides a significant commentary on the revolutionary legacy and Jefferson's eternally memorable text." --Jack Rakove,The New Republic"No document is as cherished, or misused, by Americans as the Declaration of Independence.For Liberty and Equalityis a remarkably perceptive history of the Declaration, elegantly written and carefully argued, by one of our brightest and most original legal scholars.  There is no better book on this subject in print today." --David Oshinsky, Jack S. Blanton Chair in History, University of Texas;  Distinguished Scholar in Residence, New York University; and Winner, Pulitzer Prize for History, 2006"Alexander Tsesis has written a remarkable love letter on the Declaration of Independence.  That is, like Abraham Lincoln, he views the Declaration's proclamation of equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the essence of America and, like Lincoln, he exhibits real anguish at the betrayal of this promise by toleration of systematic inequalities (the most notable, of course, being slavery).  Although a marvelous overview of American history from 1776 onward--and the use made by political reformers of the Declaration's basic norms--it is also a call to his readers today to take seriously the demands that the Declaration places on anyone who would seek to make the United States a truly 'more perfect Union.'"--Sanford Levinson, author ofFramed:  America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance