The Living Declaration: Rediscovering America’s Founding Text

FAIN: TA-309939-26

Library of America (New York, NY 10022-1006)
Max Rudin (Project Director: July 2025 to present)

A series of public events and a related online resource on the historical and contemporary significance of the Declaration of Independence.

Library of America plans The Living Declaration: Rediscovering America’s Founding Text, a public humanities initiative comprising a five-part public program series and multimedia online resource interpreting the origins, historical development, and continued importance of the language and ideas of the Declaration of Independence. Informed by rigorous scholarship and presented in partnership with major cultural organizations and public libraries around the country, the initiative will draw on vivid historical source texts from Library of America’s forthcoming book The Living Declaration: A Biography of America’s Founding Text (May 2026) to show how the Declaration came to be in 1776 and why it has remained a crucial cultural and political touchstone ever since.