Finished reading: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written by Walter Isaacson 📚
Another timely read and one I enjoyed the structure of. A detailed breakdown of one sentence. One sentence from a document we should probably focus on a bit more, instead of spending all our time on its successor.
The declaration they were writing was intended to herald a new type of nation, one in which our rights are based on reason, not the dictates or dogma of religion.
It was, and remains, a constant American struggle to make the phrase “all men are created equal” truly inclusive.
I highlighted a lot in the Common Ground chapter, but I’m only going to share two here (for now).
One way to restore stability to our politics is to look at issues through the two ideals that are at the heart of the Declaration’s key sentence: common ground and the pursuit of the American Dream.
Compromisers may not make great heroes, Franklin liked to say, but they do make great democracies.
The philosopher Michael Sandel calls this the “skyboxification” of America, whereby places and practices that used to be in commons are now roped off.
The technology that promised to connect us found a better business model in dividing us.