Two Americas, then and now

The Declaration of Independence, with its assertion of human equality, is akin to America’s “vision statement,” said Philip Deloria, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History. He sees the Constitution, threaded with compromises on individual rights, as more like the country’s “operating manual.”

“The disjunction between the vision statement and the operating manual is part of the dilemma of the United States and its history,” he said.

Deloria was one of three faculty from Harvard’s History Department to join filmmakers Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein for a conversation that mined the nation’s founding for lasting lessons. The March 25 event, co-presented with the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, was offered as part of the History Department’s “Harvard in 1776” series. It showcased Harvard experts who appear in Burns and Botstein’s new PBS documentary, “The American Revolution.”

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