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American Scripture By Pauline Maier Chapter Summary

Decent Essays

Pauline Maier, a historian of the American revolution, is the author of the book “American Scripture”. In her book she talks about a significant number of the myths that have created throughout the hundreds of years since the Declaration of Independence. The book is separated into four parts and in those sections she talks about different parts of the Declaration of Independence. In the first section, Maier discusses the pre-progressive and progressive periods. In the second chapter "The Other Declarations of Independence,” she talks about the other Declaration of Independences that were put out by other states. In the third section she talks about the documents writing and talks Jefferson and his efforts with his colleagues. In final chapters detail …show more content…

In the first section of the book Mair presents the reader with a very interesting case. In the second chapter of her book all the excitement that Mair builds up from the previous chapter is a waste. The second chapter gives detail of the other Declarations. After being loaded with detail in the first sections of chapter two she gives her argument, “In their emphasis on particular events, the news of which had sometimes arrived in the colonies only recently, these documents reveal an American people that was well informed and adopted Independence after analyzing the implications of specific recent developments” (Maier). In the third section of her book she talks about Thomas Jefferson and how he is responsible for the making of the Declaration. Maier also talks about the untrue stories that have been made about the Declaration. Maier's argument says, “Long essays have in fact been written on one phrase after another from the second paragraph of the Declaration. Unfortunately, no section of that document suffers more from a separation of parts from the whole, since its meaning lies in an escalating sequence of connected assertion”

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