The Declaration of Independence: A Global History | 
 enlarge | Author: David Armitage
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 462179
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 067403032X
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780674030329
ASIN: 067403032X
Publication Date: September 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New Gift Quality Book - No Remainder Marks
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Product Description
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. (20061115)
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Fascinating View of a Familiar Document November 21, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book offers a fresh perspective on what may be the most familiar document in American history. What David Armitage shows is that the Declaration quickly became an international document, a template for dozens, hundreds in the end, of other movements for national independence around the globe. From Vietnam to Palestine it seems the American Declaration became like a form letter nationalists could download and fill in the blanks according to whatever particular grievances supported their claim to independence. This is meant to be a succinct, focused argument about the influence of the Declaration around the globe and across time. It is written in a crisp, lucid style that students and general readers will find very accessible.
 A fine first offering April 8, 2007
Armitage's work, though far from comprehensive, is an excellent "conversation starter" regarding the immense influence the U.S. Declaration of Independence has exerted upon world movements towards self-empowerment. And the reader need not take Armitage's word alone as the gospel: the oblong volume includes a broad selection of "declarations of independence" from around the world, including those from such diverse locations as Liberia, Texas, and Israel.
Armitage analyzes the ideological influences writers have felt from Jefferson's document, and offers his interpretations regarding the importance of those influences. His work is a key discussion on an emerging field in American archival study.
However, this book is simply not long enough. Only half of the volume is devoted to Armitage's research. The remaining half is given over to sample declarations, Jefferson's rough and final drafts for the Second Continental Congress, a British rebuttal to the American document, and a table listing almost all independence pronouncements from 1776 to 1993. Armitage has opened the discussion--it remains for a further scholar, or perhaps Armitage himself--to take it to the next level.
A nice little compendium February 19, 2007
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
It was long known that the U.S declaration of Independence inspired others including Haiti, New Zealand, Hungary and Rhodesia. This book is an attempt to survey a few of those and ask important questions about the nature of such declarations. It is nice little book although it is not encyclopedic. It does miss a few declarations that are obviously modeled on the American one and the book could have gone deeper to examine the way in which the U.S declaration influenced others and why it didnt influence some. That would have been an interesting aside, nevertheless this is a first step and it merely begs someone to complete the project.
Incisive and intelligently written, a quick and enjoyable read.
Seth J. Frantzman
 I declare January 28, 2007
6 out of 16 found this review helpful
A strangely dry and thin analysis of the political afterlife of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It reads like a professor's lecture notes that are slightly expanded and tidied-up for publication. One more book to be listed as a professional accomplishment for the Harvard teacher.
I did enjoy reading the reprinting of Jeremy Bentham's view of the great document shortly after it was issued in 1776.
I did not enjoy the physical size of this edition. I found its relative smallness made for an awkward reading experience.
 MOVING ACCOUNT OF AMERICAN 'DOI'; TERRIBLE ACCOUNT OF GLOBAL HISTORY January 28, 2007
8 out of 17 found this review helpful
The book's first hundred pages are a moving and extraordinary account of the American Declaration of Independence. It confirms the author's ommand of American history and of the English language. If the book stopped there, and was issued as a mass-distribution, commemorative account, it may even be the best thus far.
But alas, the author's ambition gets the better of him and he insists on turning it into a 'Global History' of declarations of independence. That is in fact the subtitle of the book, and perhaps a hoped-for hook to make readers buy it. But the next forty pages quickly confirm that the author has neither the breadth of knowledge to deliver a complete history, leaving gaps that an elephant could walk through, nor the savvy to avoid emphasizing declarations of independence by Haiti, Venezuela, Philipines, Latvia, Hungary and others, none of which have been independent for any reasonable length of their history. Lost thus are the history of Australian, New Zealand or French independence, and other countries that have in fact been independent, although those at least find mention in appendices and in passing. What finds no mention at all is the largest democracy in the world, India, and its declaration of independence, which begins with the familiar words "We the People." In fact, in an exhaustive but unnecessary appendix of all the world's declarations of independence, India finds no mention at all, neither its initial declaration in 1931 nor its final one in 1947. The book then simply loses all credibility and completeness.
It appears therefore that the author David Armitage has relied too much on extraneous countries, studying which perhaps won him grants and fellowships, and has thus missed the elephants in the room, countries like Australia and India, which rarely attract funding or discussions in the hallowed halls of Harvard. The book so badly misses its promise that Harvard Press should reissue it as a collector's books, and then it should soar.
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