The 1776 Episode

How did the Declaration of Independence come to be the signature document of the American nation? What was its role in forging Americans’ conception of themselves as somehow exceptional—the last best hope of earth? Adam talks to Professor Patrick Griffin (Notre Dame and Oxford) to find out how a manifesto signed by rebellious colonists—most of them doing so several weeks after July 4—somehow became a pseudo-sacred text.

Download this episode here.