Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: American Thought Leaders
Episode: The Forgotten Wisdom of the Declaration of Independence | Matthew Spalding
Description: Matthew Spalding is a professor of constitutional government at Hillsdale College and author of “The Making of the American Mind: The Story of The Declaration of Independence.”A century ago, progressive historian Carl Becker argued that whether or not we have natural, inalienable rights as described in the Declaration had become a meaningless question. He believed that the idea of natural rights was not a veritable truth but merely a creed or faith of the men of his time and a product of historical circumstances.Spalding disagrees. He argues that the existence of natural rights and...