What Is the Declaration of Independence? (What Was?)

Great book for 1st grader.

...between retconning history, propagandizing and judging historical figures by contemporary values.We read a couple of chapters a day and discussed the content. I was disappointed that the actual Declaration of Independence was nowhere to be found and that there wasn't any historical context as to how huge the dominion of the British Empire was during the 16th-18th centuries. Maybe it's the yank in me, but there seemed to be a lot of glossing over of the wrongs which incited the revolution.With some well thought out questions, kids can come away from having read this book with a much more humanized understanding of the situation without being terribly bored or overwhelmed.

I recently got this one because my kids are just about the right age to learn about this. Overall, I'd give it 3 or 3.5 stars because it cannot stand on it's own without explanation. My opinion: Skip the Introduction and go right into the first chapter. The introduction is a summary and as such does not represent the issue of slavery accurately because it tries to explain it (and fails) in only a couple of sentences. It explains the issue a little more accurately later in the book, although it could explain it better. Several of the founding fathers were opposed to slavery, but they knew that if they made an issue out of it (tried to abolish slavery at that time), there would be no Revolution and no independence from Great Britain. But I understand they only have so much room in a children's book. The other issue I had was with the grey box about 2/3 the way through the book that discusses women's role in the Declaration and American Revolution. It basically states that women did not have the rights that women do today and did not have the right to vote. It is implied that because of that, women didn't have much impact/role during these events. This is a real missed opportunity. The author could have shown that even though women didn't vote (and to be clear, many did not want to vote as evidenced by a large movement of women opposing suffrage later on), they had a great deal of influence in the American Revolution and the independence of our nation. A quick search on the Web, and you can get so many examples of the thousands of women who were camp followers on the battlefields helping the troops and other efforts. Also, when George Washington was elected president in 1789, it was primarily only landowners that could vote, and sometimes there were restrictions depending on religion. So in reality not only were women and different races excluded but many white men were excluded as well. Like any study of history, we have to try to avoid judging people in that time period by today's standards. Something that is very hard to do.

A good book overall, but it's very puzzling in that there is no actual, readable, copy of the declaration itself. There is small picture of the historical document, very small and picturesque. There is an abundance of interesting background on the history which brought us to need such. But no place one can actually read those amazing words. A strange absence for a book with this title. And a great loss. I guess I'll have to go out and find my own copy to present to my grandchildren along with this book!

They had a set of 25 different books of the series at Costco. However we bought just this one on Amazon to test it out. It seems like a kid would have to be pretty motivated to want to read this kind of material. My son just likes reading things that are interesting to him such as big Nate, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter. I’m sure some motivated parents can push eight year olds to try and learn this material but I think I’m just gonna wait and let him learn in school.

Great reading practice and informative.

" 'Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. . . . This is the most famous part of the Declaration of Independence'."A fine tutorial of early American history preceding and including one of the most famous documents in world history, The Declaration of Independence. Take a look at the events that forced American colonists to separate themselves from Great Britain, while utilizing the time and talents of great patriot statesmen such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams.

Fantastic read and great introduction of the US origin for kids. I read this with my 8 and 10 yr old daughters. Both of them left with an appreciation of our founders and other great American patriots!

Highly recommended. Easy read, easy to understand and informative. Not too long.

米国がどんな国か、その出自と本来的な性質を知るには[独立宣言]を読むのが一番近道だとレビュアーは考えています。July 4, 1776.の全文はネットで原文を読めますので、まずそれを読んだほうがよいでしょう。独立宣言の全文は本書には載っていないからです。本書は米国人向けに書かれており、独立宣言の文章は既に知っていることが前提として書かれているようです。「アメリカ独立宣言」の和訳は福沢諭吉訳がキンドル版でゼロ円で現在（201807時点）は買えますが、「英国王、我諸州ニ内乱ヲ起サシメテ」という感じの古文調です。でも内容は容易につかめます。原文を読んだあとで、背景や当時の前後の情勢が知りたくなったら本書が役立ちます。「独立宣言」は英国王から搾り取られる"colonist"：入植者としての立場から書かれていますので、大英帝国が如何に植民地を搾取弾圧する悪の帝国だったかということがよくわかります。著者マイケル・ハリスの英文はとても読みやすい英語です。

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