The Declaration of Independence: A Global History

Cover
Harvard University Press, 15.01.2007 - 300 Seiten

In a stunningly original look at the American Declaration of Independence, David Armitage reveals the document in a new light: through the eyes of the rest of the world. Not only did the Declaration announce the entry of the United States onto the world stage, it became the model for other countries to follow.

Armitage examines the Declaration as a political, legal, and intellectual document, and is the first to treat it entirely within a broad international framework. He shows how the Declaration arose within a global moment in the late eighteenth century similar to our own. He uses over one hundred declarations of independence written since 1776 to show the influence and role the U.S. Declaration has played in creating a world of states out of a world of empires. He discusses why the framers’ language of natural rights did not resonate in Britain, how the document was interpreted in the rest of the world, whether the Declaration established a new nation or a collection of states, and where and how the Declaration has had an overt influence on independence movements—from Haiti to Vietnam, and from Venezuela to Rhodesia.

Included is the text of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and sample declarations from around the world. An eye-opening list of declarations of independence since 1776 is compiled here for the first time. This unique global perspective demonstrates the singular role of the United States document as a founding statement of our modern world.

Im Buch

Inhalt

The World in the Declaration of Independence
25
The Declaration of Independence in the World
63
A World of Declarations
101
Conclusion
137
Declarations of Independence 17761993
143
Thomas Jeffersons Original Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence
155
In Congress July 4 I776 A Declaration By the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress Assembled
163
Jeremy Bentham Short Review of the Declaration 1776
171
Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand October 28 1835
207
The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas March 2 1836
209
of the People of the Commonwealth of Liberia July 16 1847
215
Declaration of Independence of the Czechoslovak Nation October 18 1918
223
Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam September 2 1945
229
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel May 14 1948
235
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence Southern Rhodesia November 11 1965
241
Notes
247

Manifesto of the Province of Flanders extracts January 4 1790
185
The Haitian Declaration of Independence January 1 1804
191
The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence July 5 1811
197
Acknowledgments
285
Index
289
Urheberrecht

Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen

Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen

Autoren-Profil (2007)

David Armitage is Professor of History at Harvard University.

Bibliografische Informationen