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American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address
448
by Stephen Puleo
Stephen Puleo
American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address
448
by Stephen Puleo
Stephen Puleo
Paperback(Reprint)
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Overview
Stephen Puleo's American Treasures is a narrative history of America's secret efforts to hide its founding documents from Axis powers, and its national tradition of uniting to defend the definition of democracy.
A Boston Globe Bestseller
On December 26, 1941, Secret Service agent Harry E. Neal stood on a platform at Washington’s Union Station watching a train chug off into the dark and feeling at once relieved and inexorably anxious. These were dire times. With Hitler’s armies plowing across Europe—seizing or destroying historic artifacts at will—and Japan’s devastating attack on Pearl Harbor just three weeks prior, American officials now feared an enemy attack on Washington, D.C.
So, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set about hiding the country’s valuables. On the train speeding away from Neal sat four plain-wrapped cases containing the documentary history of America—including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address—guarded by a battery of agents and bound for safekeeping in the nation’s most impenetrable hiding place.
American Treasures charts the creation and little-known journeys of these priceless documents. From the risky and audacious adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to our modern Fourth of July celebrations, American Treasures shows how the ideas captured in these papers underscore the nation’s strengths and hopes, and embody its fundamental values of liberty and equality. Stephen Puleo weaves exciting stories of freedom under fire—from the smuggling of these documents out of Washington days before the British burned the capital in 1814, to their covert relocation during World War II—crafting a sweeping history of a nation united to preserve its democracy and the values inherent in its founding documents.
A Boston Globe Bestseller
On December 26, 1941, Secret Service agent Harry E. Neal stood on a platform at Washington’s Union Station watching a train chug off into the dark and feeling at once relieved and inexorably anxious. These were dire times. With Hitler’s armies plowing across Europe—seizing or destroying historic artifacts at will—and Japan’s devastating attack on Pearl Harbor just three weeks prior, American officials now feared an enemy attack on Washington, D.C.
So, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set about hiding the country’s valuables. On the train speeding away from Neal sat four plain-wrapped cases containing the documentary history of America—including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address—guarded by a battery of agents and bound for safekeeping in the nation’s most impenetrable hiding place.
American Treasures charts the creation and little-known journeys of these priceless documents. From the risky and audacious adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to our modern Fourth of July celebrations, American Treasures shows how the ideas captured in these papers underscore the nation’s strengths and hopes, and embody its fundamental values of liberty and equality. Stephen Puleo weaves exciting stories of freedom under fire—from the smuggling of these documents out of Washington days before the British burned the capital in 1814, to their covert relocation during World War II—crafting a sweeping history of a nation united to preserve its democracy and the values inherent in its founding documents.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250126337 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Picador |
| Publication date: | 09/05/2017 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.49(w) x 8.24(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
STEPHEN PULEO is a historian, professor, public speaker, and the author of Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (Beacon Press, 2003) and The Boston Italians (Beacon, 2007), among others. Puleo holds a masters degree in history and teaches the subject at Suffolk University. Previously an award-winning reporter, Puleo is a contributor to American History magazine and The Boston Globe. He resides in Boston.
Table of Contents
CONTENTSAuthor’s Note
Prologue
EARLY 1941
1. “It Is Natural that Men Should Value the Original Documents”
1776
2. “We Hold These Truths . . .”
3. “The Unanimous Declaration”
1941
4. “The Preservation of National Morale”
1787–1791
5. “Suspended upon a Single Hair”
6. “Our Doors Will Be Shut”
7. “That a National Government Ought to Be Established”
8. “We Are Now at a Full Stop”
9. “The People Are the King”
10. “Approaching So Near to Perfection . . .”
11. “Tis Done! . . . We Have Become a Nation”
1941
12. “A Place of Greater Safety”
1814
13. “Take the Best Care of the Books and Papers . . .”
14. “Such Destruction—Such Confusion . . .”
1942
15. “The Library of Congress Goes to War”
1826–1860
16. “I Had Flattered Myself that He Would Survive the Summer”
17. “No Government upon the Earth Is So Safe As Ours”
1942–1943
18. “Are You Satisfied We Have Taken All Reasonable Precautions?”
19. “He Loved Peace and He Loved Liberty”
1860–1924
20. “Four Score and Seven Years Ago . . .”
21. “Of the People, by the People, for the People . . .”
22. “The Instrument Has Suffered Very Seriously”
23. “Touch Any Aspect of the Address, and You Touch a Mystery”
1944
24. “Nothing that Men Have Ever Made Surpasses Them”
1952
25. “They Are Not Important As Manuscripts, They Are Important As THEMSELVES”
26. “The National Archives Will Not Forget”
27. “Symbols of Power that Can Move the World”
Epilogue
Bibliographic Essay
Acknowledgments
Index
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