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David Armitage

The Declaration of Independence: A Global History Hardcover – January 15, 2007

by David Armitage (Author)

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In a stunningly original look at the American Declaration of Independence, David Armitage reveals the document in a new light: through the eyes of the rest of the world. Not only did the Declaration announce the entry of the United States onto the world stage, it became the model for other countries to follow.

Armitage examines the Declaration as a political, legal, and intellectual document, and is the first to treat it entirely within a broad international framework. He shows how the Declaration arose within a global moment in the late eighteenth century similar to our own. He uses over one hundred declarations of independence written since 1776 to show the influence and role the U.S. Declaration has played in creating a world of states out of a world of empires. He discusses why the framers’ language of natural rights did not resonate in Britain, how the document was interpreted in the rest of the world, whether the Declaration established a new nation or a collection of states, and where and how the Declaration has had an overt influence on independence movements―from Haiti to Vietnam, and from Venezuela to Rhodesia.

Included is the text of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and sample declarations from around the world. An eye-opening list of declarations of independence since 1776 is compiled here for the first time. This unique global perspective demonstrates the singular role of the United States document as a founding statement of our modern world.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvard University Press
Publication date

January 15, 2007
Dimensions

5.75 x 1.25 x 7.25 inches
ISBN-10

0674022823
ISBN-13

978-0674022829
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harvard history professor Armitage (Greater Britain, 1516– 1776: Essays in Atlantic History) examines how America's Declaration of Independence influenced the revolutionary struggles of people around the world. Armitage begins by teasing out the world as the Declaration imagined it: the international community consisted of "peoples linked by both benign and malign forms of commerce," as well as divided by warfare and "threatened by outlaw powers." He then describes how the world reacted to America's Declaration: it almost immediately sparked debate about the basis on which a state was legitimate. Finally, Armitage traces the ripple effects of the Declaration: today half the world's countries have such declarations. The author compares and contrasts these other documents with the American one, showing how other nascent nations sometimes drew on America's language and ideas, such as a statement of grievances. Armitage suggests that this succession of declarations constitutes "a major transition in world history": what was once a world of empires has become a world of sovereign states. This core argument is fascinating and significant, though lengthy appendixes, including several declarations, will interest primarily scholars. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this survey of the Declaration of Independence's immediate and long-term influence, Armitage argues that its initial effect was on international law, by its assertion of a new state claiming equality with other states. By contrast, "all men are created equal" took much longer to take hold in the world. Aware of the Declaration's innovation in international affairs, British commentary strove to refute the Declaration's justifications for the British colonies becoming independent: both historian Edward Gibbon and philosopher Jeremy Bentham lent their intellects to the anti-independence case. Once the successful War of Independence settled the matter, Armitage impresses how the Declaration acquired milestone symbolism in the international system, its phrases sometimes copied verbatim in the numerous declarations of independence that have accompanied the world's transition from empires to states. Containing texts of a dozen such declarations, Armitage's readable study restores historical context to our own, truly revolutionary Declaration. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“More so than the Constitution…the Declaration has also become a global document, a piece of intellectual and political common property that has transcended the circumstances of its creation and perhaps even the intentions of its authors. Surprisingly, this afterlife has not received systematic and ‘global’ treatment by historians, and David Armitage is to be congratulated on his concise and well-written study of the Declaration as, to use his own words, ‘an event, a document, and the beginning of a genre.’ He shows that it was first and foremost an ‘international’ document, driven by the need to establish the legitimacy of the united colonies within the state-system and thus their right to conclude alliances against Britain.”―Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal

“David Armitage’s concise and penetrating book, The Declaration of Independence, exemplifies the potential strengths of a truly transnational approach to the writing of history… By looking beyond the borders of the USA, Armitage alters our perspective on the meaning of the Declaration… David Armitage has shed new light on some of the most important questions about the foundations of the modern world by examining a document that is both time-bound and timeless.”―Adam I. P. Smith, Times Literary Supplement

“A provocative study of a subject about which one might have thought there was nothing new to report.”―Michael Kenney, Boston Globe

“This manifesto deserves reading by students and adults alike. The Declaration is greatly under-noticed.”―Ralph Nader, Ralph Nader’s Reading List

“In The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, David Armitage brings original insights and a global perspective to bear on a 1776 Declaration that has become misleadingly familiar.”―Alexander Bevilacqua, Harvard Book Review

“The Declaration of Independence has long been regarded as national property. But where US popular lore sees mirrored in its words the image of the nation, David Armitage sees the reflections of a wider world…this is the story of the emergence of a world of states from a world of empires… Without a doubt, this global history testifies to the power of words and ideas.”―Glenda Sluga, Harvard International Review

“Armitage’s readable study restores historical context to our own, truly revolutionary Declaration.”―Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

“Armitage presents and analyzes the global influence of the Declaration of Independence, showing the document as a powerful global symbol and a means of generating self-governing nations elsewhere during the 50 years after its creation. In order to understand the declaration’s international impact, Armitage examines the development of like declarations in other nations during the 19th century, presenting samples of them from around the world. He seeks to recover ‘the meaning of independence that the Declaration claimed for the United States,’ and he raises thoughtful questions about the political interdependence among world states. His new perspectives concerning both the domestic and the international context of the declaration demonstrate its importance in the formation of nations as the primary units in global politics.”―Steven Puro, Library Journal

“[Armitage’s] core argument is fascinating and significant.”―Publishers Weekly

“In this brilliant work, Armitage not only illuminates the American founding but offers a provocative perspective on the modern world as a whole. There is nothing on the American Declaration that compares with this extraordinary book.”―Peter S. Onuf, author of Jefferson’s Empire

“David Armitage’s fascinating and lucidly written book will establish itself as a key contribution to what is virtually a new field of study: the transnational history of ideas.”―Christopher Bayly, coauthor of Forgotten Armies and Forgotten Wars

“This concise, readable book makes a powerful contribution to scholarship on the Declaration of Independence. From a global perspective, it seems, the document’s significance lies less in its second paragraph (‘all men are created equal’) than in its conclusion, where it declared independence. Armitage’s argument might provoke some opposition, but his evidence―ignored by previous scholars―needs to be taken very seriously.”―Pauline Maier, author of American Scripture

About the Author

David Armitage is Professor of History at Harvard University.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; First Edition (January 15, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674022823
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674022829
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.25 x 7.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,437,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,042 in Constitutions (Books)
- #53,997 in World History (Books)
- #79,228 in American History

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kelsie

A fine first offering

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2007

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Armitage's work, though far from comprehensive, is an excellent "conversation starter" regarding the immense influence the U.S. Declaration of Independence has exerted upon world movements towards self-empowerment. And the reader need not take Armitage's word alone as the gospel: the oblong volume includes a broad selection of "declarations of independence" from around the world, including those from such diverse locations as Liberia, Texas, and Israel.

Armitage analyzes the ideological influences writers have felt from Jefferson's document, and offers his interpretations regarding the importance of those influences. His work is a key discussion on an emerging field in American archival study.

However, this book is simply not long enough. Only half of the volume is devoted to Armitage's research. The remaining half is given over to sample declarations, Jefferson's rough and final drafts for the Second Continental Congress, a British rebuttal to the American document, and a table listing almost all independence pronouncements from 1776 to 1993. Armitage has opened the discussion--it remains for a further scholar, or perhaps Armitage himself--to take it to the next level.

12 people found this helpful

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Don H. Doyle

A Fascinating View of a Familiar Document

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2007

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This book offers a fresh perspective on what may be the most familiar document in American history. What David Armitage shows is that the Declaration quickly became an international document, a template for dozens, hundreds in the end, of other movements for national independence around the globe. From Vietnam to Palestine it seems the American Declaration became like a form letter nationalists could download and fill in the blanks according to whatever particular grievances supported their claim to independence. This is meant to be a succinct, focused argument about the influence of the Declaration around the globe and across time. It is written in a crisp, lucid style that students and general readers will find very accessible.

5 people found this helpful

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Nico Vela

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2017

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Recommended to me by a professor as reading for my future thesis, this take on the founding document from the perspective of other countries, considering that this document was also the foundation for other countries.

A well thought out and well written book, one that will definitely come in handy for my thesis.

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2020

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This book looks at not just our declaration but compares it to others that came after.

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2018

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Very interesting.

Helpful

A nice little compendium

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2007

It was long known that the U.S declaration of Independence inspired others including Haiti, New Zealand, Hungary and Rhodesia. This book is an attempt to survey a few of those and ask important questions about the nature of such declarations. It is nice little book although it is not encyclopedic. It does miss a few declarations that are obviously modeled on the American one and the book could have gone deeper to examine the way in which the U.S declaration influenced others and why it didnt influence some. That would have been an interesting aside, nevertheless this is a first step and it merely begs someone to complete the project.

Incisive and intelligently written, a quick and enjoyable read.

Seth J. Frantzman

14 people found this helpful

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David Clemons

Armitage underscores the U.S. Constitution's versatility and lingering global influence

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2011

In this short but concise work, Armitage suggests the act of declaring independence was not only a novel and unprecedented act of state-making, but that many of the ideals imbued in the revolutionary rhetoric within the document were, themselves, a reflection of political perspectives from beyond the Atlantic Ocean. He focuses on the state-making message of the American Declaration instead of underscoring the natural rights of the individual citizen as historians have historically done. Jefferson's document was practical.

Despite its incontrovertible influence on global politics, not all nations have shared the political ideals of the American Declaration. Instead, Armitage rightly proposes that many nations used the American model merely as a template to promote their own political agendas to achieve statehood. In such cases, nations would find particular use out of the first and third paragraphs of the American Declaration calling for independence and the legal right for their states to exist while minimizing the second paragraph highlighting "natural rights" of their citizenry. Moreover, states that have liberated themselves from larger political bodies have, ironically, been unwilling to acquiesce to demands of independence from smaller polities within their new states.

Armitage compiles a list of reliable primary and secondary sources in his research. In addition to the U.S. Declaration and personal letters of some of the document's key drafters, his book includes the text of ten other unabridged declarations of independence from nations throughout the globe. His work also provides a helpful key detailing the date and what he suggests are sources of inspiration behind each of the world's nations which declared their independence since the United States did so in 1776. With these sources, Armitage provides students with an invaluable tool for discerning how the ideas of popular sovereignty and self-determination forged the consciousness of the American founders.

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The Declaration of Independence: A Global History Hardcover – January 15, 2007

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