The Gilder Lehrman Institute recommends the books listed here, which represent the very best in recent scholarship on the origins, impact, and legacy of the Declaration of Independence. To purchase copies, please visit the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop. We receive an affiliate commission from purchases made through the provided links, which supports our programming for teachers and students.
- Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
- Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
- Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.
- Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: The Making of the Declaration of Independence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
- McCullough, David. 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
- Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
- Nash, Gary B. The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
- Armitage, David. The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
- Brunsman, Denver, and David J. Silverman, eds. The American Revolution Reader. New York: Routledge, 2013.
- Ellis, Joseph J. Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
- Allen, Danielle. Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. New York: Liveright, 2014.
- Horne, Gerald. The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America. New York: New York University Press, 2014.
- Wills, Garry. Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978; repr. New York: Vintage Books, 2018.
Click here to purchase suggested readings on the Declaration of Independence. The affiliate commission we receive supports our work.