Why Freedom Matters: Celebrating the Declaration of Independence in Two Centuries of Prose, Poetry and Song

by Daniel Katz

Freedom. It's an idea worth pledging a life for, in the words of Thomas Jefferson. A gift outright to the poet Robert Frost. A difficult responsibility, writes Frederick Douglass. Defiant and enduring, for Maya Angelou. Quarrelsome, to Kurt Vonnegut. Open-armed and welcoming-Emma Lazarus.

Why Freedom Matters celebrates freedom in over 100 speeches, letters, essays, poems, and songs, all infused with the spirit of democracy. Here are the voices of presidents and slaves, founding fathers and hip-hop artists, suffragettes, civil rights workers, preachers, labor leaders, and baseball players. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the book is published in conjunction with The Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a 31/2-year cross-country educational tour of an extremely rare, original hand-printed copy of the Declaration, bought at auction by Norman Lear. The DOI Road Trip's mission is to energize Americans by bringing our founding document to towns small and large across the country; in 2003, for example, the Declaration and its accompanying exhibit will visit 27 cities from Birmingham to Billings, New Orleans to New York. Like the document itself, this compelling anthology reveals America's soul as it wrestles with questions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and strives to fulfill the ideals of Thomas Jefferson's words.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

413 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2003

About the author

Daniel Katz (born 1938 in Helsinki) is a Jewish-Finnish writer.

He is a graduate of the University of Helsinki in the Humanities. He worked as a Jewish history teacher at the Jewish School in Helsinki, and in Haifa Israel as a driller on subway construction.

He writes in Finnish. His first commercially successful novel, Kun isoisä Suomeen hiihti (When Grandfather Skied to Finland), is a humorous description of Katz's family history and Finland's entry into World War II. As an ethnic minority writer, Katz has written as an outsider regarding life in Finland. He has been awarded and been a finalist for the J. H. Erkko Award (debut novel), Runeberg Prize and others.

Katz has four children, including Dunja Katz and the musician Kalle Katz. He lives in Loviisa, Finland.

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a diverse and interesting collection of America speeches, songs, and other literature. There were some that I skimmed, I'll admit, but other than obvious patriotic speeches that are always included in these collections, there were a host of other selections that lead me to listen to songs or look up people I did not know a lot about. So I think this is a good way to introduce someone to an American collection of documents.

[Seth Steinman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deserves more attention- a collection of uniquely American documents, poems, stories and ideas.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic documentary of American freedom, Republican democracy, and a wide assortment of freedoms we have the people have struggled so hard for. As far as American history goes, it is my firm belief that vignettes like those presented in this book are the best way to educate oneself or to entice a young one into studying and enjoying American history.

[Rishabh Shukla · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a great collection of various speeches, poems, essays and stories written/given around the idea of liberty, freedom and pursuit of happiness (the ethos immortalized in the Declaration of American independence). It gives a nice survey of various writings and public speeches made throughout the human history in various parts of world by various intellectuals.