Used, Abused, and Sidelined

Since it was published in 1776, the Declaration of Independence has been used to advocate for social justice and to maintain inequitable social hierarchies; it has served as a model for justifying revolutions in other nations and for the Confederacy’s secession from the US federal government. But as we approach its 250th anniversary, this book asks: Does the Declaration still matter?

In this volume, leading scholars explore how this remarkably pliable document has been used for progressive and regressive politics alike and track its impact on independence movements across the globe. The essays begin with the Declaration’s immediate reception and masculine style of prose and then move on to its central role in interpreting civic action between state and federal governments, most notably secession in the Antebellum era, questions of sovereignty between Indigenous nations in the United States, and the United States’ relationship with Latin America. The next section focuses on the ways the Declaration was called upon to urge imperative moral action, especially in terms of human rights, in the US Civil Rights Movement and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, or, in contrast, how it was cast aside in the Syrian Revolution. The final section teases out the tension between the needs reflected in the original document and the needs of the contemporary political world.

Used, Abused, and Sidelined demonstrates how this foundational document prepares us to tolerate and to resist—and it points to how we might leverage the Declaration to create a different kind of political future.

“These essays do more than valorize the US Declaration of Independence, they unfold its rhetorical character, probing its rhetorical and political affordances, as well as its gaps, blindnesses, and omissions. Peeling back layers of well-meaning mythology, the essays provide a balanced reckoning with a document that has shaped discourse, inside and outside the United States, for the last 250 years.”—William M. Keith, coauthor of Beyond Civility: The Competing Obligations of Citizenship

“The Declaration of Independence is a document that everyone knows and few understand. This book goes wide and deep to give readers the chance to see the text for its rhetorical majesty alongside its flawed premises and failed hopes. Stuckey’s volume should be read by anyone who hopes to not only critique this essential founding document, but also wonder about how it might apply to preserving democracy in the future.”—Sam Martin, author of Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump

Mary E. Stuckey is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Her most recent books are For the Enjoyment of the People: The Creation of National Identity in American Public Lands and Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump, the latter published by Penn State University Press.

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