Garry Wills
***1/2
I almost put this book down a number of times. The prose was unnecessarily turgid, the arguments and examples repetitive, and a number of points were overly developed while being picayune. But I plowed on, finally seeing how the argument came together along about chapter 23. In fact, for those picking this volume up, it might be better to start around 21 or 22, reading carefully through 23 -- then go back and skim the rest, reading some chapters more carefully.
Wills's main point is that, contrary to current opinion (current as of 1978), Jefferson's language was actually very precisely chosen, representing a moral and sentimental point of view that had a rich, contemporary context that lends exact meaning to phrases and words like "pursuit," "happiness," "bands which have been connected," and "inallienable rights." These phrases all point back to the Scottish moral philosopher Francis Hutcheson, not John Locke. This is a huge claim about the difference in meaning between an individualistic and communalistic reading of the Declaration. It is almost certainly the case that Wills felt he had to hammer his points home re Hutcheson as the origin of Jefferson's ideas since it was -- and maybe still is -- against the grain of majority opinion on Jefferson's philosophical underpinnings. So it was a good, but hard book to read.
