Amer Revolution

I sure hope they reprint this lovely book for older kids...My teenage daughter Michaela had this book out from the school library and was studying it for a history project. I borrowed it one day when I had nothing to read while soaking in the bath. I'm so pleased I did. I read the first eighty pages before cold bath-water forced me out.This book explains the ORIGINAL American concept of freedom, as expressed so beautifully by Thomas Jefferson in 1776: "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."Change the words "all men" to "all humans" and you have, without doubt, the greatest statement ever written outside the bible.The American Revolution, or War of Independence, was not about aggression, territorial expansion, or cultural imperialism. It was about RIGHTS and SELF-DETERMINATION and LIBERTY.Oh, how marvellously the early American patriots created a new nation! It still had a long way to go until white women, all blacks, native Americans, and other minorities got to enjoy freedom, but it rested on a genuinely wonderful foundation.Looking at America from the distance of New Zealand, and surveying the carnage caused by current American foreign policy, my only question is: how on earth has American walked so far away from its excellent founding principles?