Our Declaration

Danielle Allen is a political philosopher and classicist. She is the author of Our Declaration, which is a close reading of the Declaration of Independence based on her belief that most readers do not appreciate the significance of equality in the text. Though she conducted some historical research for her book, Allen is not a historian. She relies on her training in political philosophy to construct a work that relies primarily on reading the Declaration of Independence closely. Allen is open about aspects of her biography that draw her to the relationship between freedom and equality: she is an African American woman whose family history intersects with the history of civil rights in the United States. She is also critical about the failures of American politicians, especially the Founding Fathers, to live up to their promises. She is passionate about education and teaching; her work with nontraditional students drove her to assign the Declaration of Independence and realize she needed to read it more closely.

Thomas Jefferson was a farmer and intellectual from Virginia who participated in the Continental Congress, the body that formally signed and approved the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson had long been a supporter of independence and critical of the monarchy; his fame as a writer led others to trust him with a leading role in crafting the Declaration of Independence.