For Liberty and Equality

• First history of the Declaration of Independence, from 1776 to the present
• A deeply researched narrative history that shows the many surprising ways in which the Declaration has influenced American social movements
• Holds the Declaration up as a mirror to America's many historical periods, and considers whether Americans were able to live up to its ideals

Readership: General readers interested in Revolutionary-era American politics and thought; student and scholars of american political development and early American history.

Alexander Tsesis, Professor of Law, Loyola University (Chicago)

Alexander Tsesis is a professor at the Loyola University School of Law. He is the author of We Shall Overcome: A History of Civil Rights and the Law; The Thirteenth Amendment and American Freedom; and Destructive Messages: How Hate Speech Paves the Way for Harmful Social Movements.

Chapter I: Preface
Chapter II: Becoming Independent
Chapter III: The Nation's Infancy
Chapter IV: Youthful Republic
Chapter V. Compromising for the Sake of Expansion
Chapter VI. Jacksonian Era Democracy
Chapter VII. Subordination
Chapter VIII: The Unraveling Bonds of Union
Chapter IX: Sectional Cataclysm
Chapter X: Reconstruction
Chapter XI: Gilded Populism
Chapter XII: Inconsistent Progress
Chapter XIII: The Declaration in a New Deal State
Chapter XIV: Independence Principles in the Civil Rights Era
Chapter XV: Epilogue
Appendix: The Declaration of Independence