More Book Reviews for America 250 and Independence Day

Leading up to this year's special America 250 celebrations and Independence Day, I recently read two books that I highly recommend. 

The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

The first is a fairly quick read: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written by famed biographer Walter Isaacson. This 80-page book dissects and provides context for this powerful sentence that stands out from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

This one sentence was carefully drafted, revised, rewritten, and discussed by a number of major figures of the American Revolution. I was intrigued by the nuances and implications presented by Isaacson as he analyzes each word. 

This Land Is Your Land

Professor Beverly Gage of Yale University wrote the second book I enjoyed: This Land Is Your Land. This is a first-person account of Gage's visits north, south, east, and west to historic places across the United States that shaped the country over time. This narrative picks up where Isaacson's book leaves off, with a look at the American Revolution through Gage's modern-day visit to Independence Hall. 

We ride along with the author through places as varied as Henry Ford's River Rouge automobile plant in Michigan, the Alamo in Texas, and Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota. She doesn't shy away from topics such as enslaved people, native peoples, foreign wars, and the challenges of industrialization. I particularly appreciated Gage's personal observations as well as her careful historical explanations. Recommended!