Creating the Declaration of Independence

Creating the Declaration of Independence is an online exhibit that is part of the Creating the United States exhibition produced by the Library of Congress which "demonstrates that the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are living instruments that are central to the evolution of the United States." Highly recommended this 4th of July. Hat tip to Mark Giangrande's July 3, 2010 post for the link to the Library of Congress online exhibit. 

De- and Re-Constructing the Declaration of Independence. Many excellent works of historical scholarship on the Declaration have been produced since 1979 but I always turn back to my 30-plus year old copy of Inventing American: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence by Garry Wills this time of year. It remains one of my favorites because Wills distinguishes the "Declaration of Congress (which is mainly political) from the Declaration of Jefferson (which is philosophical in the eighteenth-century sense, that is, scientific) and from our Declaration (which is symbolic, the thing we have reshaped even as it was shaping us)." (Quoting from "Plan of the Book;" Emphasis in the Vintage Books edition, 1979). [JH]