Sign-In
Cart
Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters
Hardcover
Armed ForcesRegional: Middle AtlanticRevolutionary Period (1775-1800)
Publisher Price: $29.99
ISBN13: 9781324078975
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: Nov 11 2025
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.05
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
At 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 Declaring Independence, 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 Common Sense 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.
Combined, these ideals and the sacrifices remind us why, on this anniversary and at this political moment, 1776 matters to all of us.
Also from
Larson, Edward J.
American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795
Larson, Edward J.
Paperback
Also in
Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution
Head, David
Hardcover
The Church of Saint Thomas Paine: A Religious History of American Secularism
Schmidt, Leigh Eric
Paperback
The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution
Wegman, Jesse
Hardcover
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
Atkinson, Rick
Paperback
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
Atkinson, Rick
Hardcover
Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth
Hall, Mark David
Paperback
Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours
Onuf, Peter S.
Cogliano, Francis D.
Hardcover
Radical Duke: How One Aristocrat-And the American Revolution-Transformed Britain
Allen, Danielle
Hardcover
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Hardcover
The Flag Was Still There: A History of the American Experiment in Five Anniversaries
McKean, David
Bennett, M. Todd
Hardcover
Jefferson's Wolf: A Founding Father's Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery
Guyatt, Nicholas
Dierksheide, Christa
Hardcover
The Escapes of David George: An Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution
O'Malley, Gregory E.
Hardcover
The Christian Past That Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History
Throckmorton, Warren
Hardcover
Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minister Became America's Most Radical Revolutionary
Sankovitch, Nina
Hardcover
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
Atkinson, Rick
Hardcover
The Cherokee War of 1776: Native Destruction at the Dawn of American Independence
Kokomoor, Kevin
Hardcover
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
McCullough, David
Paperback
Divided Over the Declaration: How an Enduring Debate Sustains the Vision of America
Bobb, David J.
Williams, Tony
Hardcover
The Making of the American Mind: The Story of Our Declaration of Independence
Spalding, Matthew
Hardcover
The Forgotten World War: Exploring the Secret History of the American Revolution, from Spain to India and Back Again
Baxter, Derek
Hardcover
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution (Large Print Edition)
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory
Marks, John Garrison
Hardcover
The Democracy We Must Keep: Seven Founders, Nine Documents, and the Ideas That Shaped America
Stewart, David O.
Paperback
The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Paperback
From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition.....
Maier, Pauline
Paperback
Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
Allen, Danielle
Paperback
America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War
Bennett, William J.
Paperback
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher
Paperback
Henry Knox's Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller's Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution
Hazelgrove, William Elliott
Hardcover
The U.S. Constitution and Other Writings (Deluxe Leatherbound Edition)
Editors of Canterbury Classics
Hardcover
Broad Stripes Bright Stars: A Graphic History Celebrating 250 Years of America's Icons
Hinrichs, Kit
Hardcover
The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy, 1731-1821
Vague, Richard
Hardcover
The Painter's Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution
Anishanslin, Zara
Hardcover
Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution
Edgar, Walter B.
Paperback
Proclaiming Liberty: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Declaration of Independence
Sandefur, Timothy
Hardcover
George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution
Kilmeade, Brian
Yaeger, Don
Paperback
A Nation's Birth: A Town-by-Town Guide to Colonial and Revolutionary War History in the North
Alper, Max Victor
Paperback
A Nation's Heritage: A Town-by-Town Guide to Colonial and Revolutionary War History in the South
Alper, Max Victor
Paperback
Kings Mountain: America's Most Forgotten Battle That Changed the Course of the American Revolution
Tucker, Phillip Thomas
Hardcover
Propaganda Wars of the American Revolution: From the Boston Patriots to George Washington
Goodwin, George
Hardcover
Republic and Empire: Crisis, Revolution, and America's Early Independence
Burnard, Trevor
O'Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson
Hardcover
War Without Mercy: Liberty or Death in the American Revolution
Martin, James Kirby
Lender, Mark Edward
Hardcover
For the Hope of this Land: A Visual Learner's Workbook for Early American History
Newhouse, Amy
Paperback
The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army
Lockhart, Paul
Paperback
The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Hardcover
The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim's Journey on the Great Wagon Road
Dodson, James
Hardcover
The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on America
Cribb, John T. E.
Bennett, William J.
Paperback
Complete American Revolution Road Trip Guide: More Than 500 Sites from Lexington to Yorktown
Weeks, Michael
Paperback
John Hancock: First to Sign, First to Invest in America's Independence
Randall, Willard Sterne
Hardcover
National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America (Large Print Edition)
Auslin, Michael
Hardcover
Common Sense (1776), Addressed to Today's Citizens of America: An Erasure
Smith, Crystal Simone
Hardcover
Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics
Brands, H. W.
Paperback
Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
Ricks, Thomas E.
Paperback
The Constitution of the United States of America and Other Founding Documents: Gilded Pocket Edition
Hamilton, Alexander
Jay, John
Washington, George
Hardcover
The Forsaken Founder: Gouverneur Morris, the Unsung Patriot Who Wrote the Constitution, Stood Up to Slavery, and Survived the Reign of Terror
Greenberger, Scott S.
Hardcover
Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic
Chervinsky, Lindsay M.
Hardcover
The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison
Madison, James
Larson, Edward J.
Winship, Michael P.
Paperback
Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
Clavin, Tom
Drury, Bob
Paperback
Washington's Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution
O'Donnell, Patrick K.
Paperback
A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution
Lawler, Andrew
Hardcover
To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment
Baier, Bret
Paperback
In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Shots Heard Round the World: America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War
Ferling, John E.
Hardcover
The Federalist & the Anti-Federalist Papers: Complete Collection: Including the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Import
Jay, John
Hamilton, Alexander
Madison, James
Paperback
The U.S. Constitution and Other Key American Writings (Keepsake Edition)
Editors of Canterbury Classics
Paperback
The Men Who Lost America: British Command during the Revolutionary War and the Preservation of the Empire
O'Shaughnessy, Andrew J.
Paperback
Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth
Yecke Brooks, Tiffany
Bellerjeau, Claire
Paperback
The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America
Horne, Gerald
Paperback
The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States
Madison, James
Jay, John
Hamilton, Alexander
Paperback
The Revolutionary Paul Revere: A Biography of a Hero of the American Revolution
Miller, Joel J.
Paperback
The Constitution of the United States (U.S. Heritage): With the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and Other Founding Documents with an I
Fathers, Founding
Washington, George
Hardcover
Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation
Wulf, Andrea
Paperback
The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America
Nash, Gary B.
Paperback
The American Revolution on Trial: A New Nation Confronts the Burden of Independence
Breen, Timothy Hall
Hardcover
Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise ofDemocracy
Linklater, Andro
Paperback