Why read The Course of Human Events?

Book cover of The Course of Human Events: The Declaration of Independence and the Historical Origins of the United States

Book description

How reading the Declaration of Independence as a document of history explains its intended meaning

Thomas Jefferson chose his words carefully. Few could have been more deliberate than 'When in the Course of human events,' the phrase with which he opened the Declaration of Independence. As Steven Sarson shows,…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Course of Human Events as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Robert G. Parkinson

Author

Sarson’s book is sort of a return to Becker’s analysis of the ideas in the Declaration.

I learned a ton from this book’s analysis of how Jefferson and Congress thought about history and time when they composed the Declaration.

What does “the course of human events” mean? How did Americans think they were making history? Reacting to it? What kind of history consciousness did they have in 1776? These are very interesting questions that Sarson treats very smartly.

From Robert's list on Robert G. Parkinson's favorite books on the Declaration of Independence.