We Hold These Truths...: And Other Words That Made America - Hardcover

Aron, Paul

3.82

33 ratings by Goodreads

9780742562721: We Hold These Truths...: And Other Words That Made America

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0742562727 ISBN 13: 9780742562721

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008

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Remember the ladies. A Republic if you can keep it. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. If this be treason, make the most of it. Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes. I can't tell a lie.

These words and words like them, whether written or spoken, had a profound importance during America's Founding period. These are the words of legend and gravitas, referenced by generations of teachers, politicians, and commentators. These are the words that still inspire revolutionary changes in the United States and elsewhere. But what do they mean? What's the real story behind them? Why do they inspire us today, more than two centuries after first spoken or written? We Hold These Truths. . . . answers these questions about fifty-four of the best-known quotes from the Founding period.

This book covers two hundred years of early American history and highlights quotes from both the founders and the founding documents. Combining each quote with a rich narratives that highlights its astounding, and generally unknown, origin. History buffs of all ages will love We Hold These Truths. . . .

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About the Author:

Paul Aron is a senior editor and writer for Colonial Williamsburg. He is the author of several books, including Unsolved Mysteries of American History, Unsolved Mysteries of History, More Unsolved Mysteries of American History, and Did Babe Ruth Call His Shot?.

Review:

An entertaining and educational romp through Revolutionary history. Paul Aron uses the words and phrases as starting points for the telling of dozens of interesting and delightful stories, and in the process he has created a colorful tapestry of life in the Founding era of America. (Gordon Wood, author of Revolutionary Characters and The American Revolution)

Fast-paced and engagingly written, Paul Aron's We Hold These Truths. . . . is a concise and reliable guide to the making of the American Revolution and its legacy. The book traces the entertaining and often surprising sources—from Abigail and John Adams to George Washington and Phillis Wheatley—of the words, phrases, and ideals that have come to define the American identity. (Vincent Carretta, author of Equiano: The African)

All too often books of quotations become little more than lists that are more entertaining than enlightening. This book, however, is both fun to read and highly informative, not to mention diverse in its range of voices. One can enjoy it all out or piece by piece at night before bed. (Harvey Kaye, author of Thomas Paine and the Promise of America)

A lively, eye-opening exploration of our cherished national aphorisms and the myths that surround them. Along the way, Paul Aron treats his readers to a wonderfully succinct and insightful overview of the pressing social and political concerns of the Revolutionary era. (Carol Sheriff, coauthor of A People at War)

With crisp and informative introductions, Paul Aron has culled the most memorable lines from the founding fathers, one wife, two slaves, and two anonymous contributors. (Joyce Appleby, author of Thomas Jefferson and A Restless Past)

The generation of the American Revolution made a revolution and a nation and a Constitution with a Bill of Rights, and it also created a remarkable body of quotable language, as familiar to us today as the choicest morsels of Shakespeare or the King James Bible. . . . Now, with We Hold These Truths. . . ., we can sort out the genuine from the legendary and understand how the power of the words, even the legendary ones, brings the meaning of the American Revolution down to us today. (Brent Tarter, editor of Revolutionary Virginia)

We Hold These Truths. . . . invites us into a world in which words mattered because ideas mattered. The Founders . . . united around principles and perceptions they were at pains to express precisely and thus to share without confusion. . . . Aron has bravely situated their eloquence and elegance in explanatory prose of his own, which shows that he has no fear of formidable neighbors, that he has read them and learned from them about how to write, which he does earnestly but not heavily, clearly and with verve. (Roger Kennedy, author of Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson)

Just as popular culture has its urban legends, so history has its famous quotations. Some were never uttered, but many others were—not always quite as we imagined, or for the reasons we think. We Hold These Truths. . . . is a fascinating and handy compendium of the real origins of many of the best known quotations from our Revolutionary era. Sometimes you'll be surprised, and more often, delighted. (Jack Rakove, author of Original Meanings)

All of those who love history must read this book and remember that what people said and wrote was just as important as what they did. (Bruce Chadwick, author of George Washington's War)

How did the founders do it? Paul Aron lays out one way: by writing, talking, and arguing. These verbalists changed their world more than two centuries ago, and they can still provoke, explain, and inspire today. (Richard Brookhiser, author of George Washington on Leadership)