Thomas Jefferson shared with his fellow Continental Congress members a keen sense of the particular economic and political abuses the colonies suffered under English rule. Some were recent, arising in the aftermath of the Great War for Empire against France; others stretched back over the almost two centuries of British rule. He catalogued these abuses in the body of the Declaration he had been chosen to draft. But, also like his fellow congressmen, he believed these particulars required a framing within a political philosophy. To provide that frame, Jefferson produced a preamble that laid out the ideas and ideals that propelled the movement for independence. In this issue of History Now, historians explore the philosophical sources Jefferson drew upon—both those he embraced and those he sought to renounce.
The Declaration of Independence and the Philosophy of a Broken Union
Valsania, Maurizio
2026-01-01
Abstract
Thomas Jefferson shared with his fellow Continental Congress members a keen sense of the particular economic and political abuses the colonies suffered under English rule. Some were recent, arising in the aftermath of the Great War for Empire against France; others stretched back over the almost two centuries of British rule. He catalogued these abuses in the body of the Declaration he had been chosen to draft. But, also like his fellow congressmen, he believed these particulars required a framing within a political philosophy. To provide that frame, Jefferson produced a preamble that laid out the ideas and ideals that propelled the movement for independence. In this issue of History Now, historians explore the philosophical sources Jefferson drew upon—both those he embraced and those he sought to renounce.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
