The Founders’ Blueprint for Saving America | Walter Isaacson

Video Description

Walter Isaacson is known for writing the definitive biographies of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk. But his new book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, is not a biography at all. It’s an analysis—and a dissection—of the words that defined American history and shape our political imagination: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Most of us know this version by heart. But the original formulation read: “We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.” These edits may seem minor. But shifting words like“sacred and undeniable” to “self-evident,” and “independant” to “equal,” captures a fierce set of debates—about the role of religion in the new nation, who exactly “we” refers to, how decisively the Founders intended to break from European monarchy and aristocracy, and the role of government in public life. It also reflects what each contributor—Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin—brought to the table. These words would go on to animate abolitionists and suffragists alike. Abraham Lincoln invoked them in his Gettysburg Address, as he fought to end slavery and preserve a nation “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Now, 250 years later, Isaacson asks us to see the Founders as they were—brilliant, flawed, deeply human—and to consider how their words might offer a road map for healing our own era of division. I ask Isaacson how the Founders' language has defined some of our country’s most hallowed institutions; whether their sentiments can help heal today’s political fractures; and how those 35 words provided the scaffolding for the American project.