The Declaration's Most Radical—and Consequential—Idea

So, Brad, maybe to start, you know, the Declaration is not a long document.

Many people, I think, have read it in school or read it a long time ago.

Parts of it are more important than other parts, I would say.

You know, we have that long list of grievances, of course.

But I just want to kind of give you a chance to talk a little bit about just in general why you wanted to write the book and then maybe about the Declaration itself.

What are some of the key ideas there? from the Declaration that you think are really important for us to keep in mind.

And as we have conversation, especially about some of the critics later, we'll talk about some of the progressives, we'll talk about the issues of slavery.

But before we get into all of that, I think it'd be helpful to hear from you about what the Declaration of Independence means, why it's important, and what you see as sort of some of its central claims and truths that it lays out.

Yeah, thanks, Paul.

That's a lot to talk about and that's great.

So you guys actually approached me exactly two years ago.

In fact, it was probably two years ago this week because I was at, it was right after graduation.

I was at a track meet for my kids and I got the email message on my iPhone asking me to write this book.

And I was thrilled to do that.

And I had just a great time.

I was working on some other projects at the time and I set those aside for a year and a half and to do this book.

And so I've been teaching American Founding ever since I got to Hillsdale in 1999.

So I've just finished my 27th year and I've taught American Founding every other year.

And I love it.

It's just one of those things that no matter how many times I teach it, I never get bored.

I'm always interested in new things.

There's always something new to think about.

There's always some new book that's just come out.

some new way of really contemplating what the founding is.

And I found that very rich for my own intellectual life.