Declaration of independence

The first mind-boggling course I took as a college student was an American history class in which we studied different drafts of the Declaration of Independence. This was at Cal Tech in 1957 (excellent humanities courses there!). The process of drafting, debating, and rewriting this seminal document was revealing, to say the least, and also presented a very different approach to studying history than what I had experienced in high school. It was an exciting moment in my intellectual growth. Our textbook was Carl Becker's study. What I liked about it is that it showed lines of the document crossed out, with appropriate notes, giving one a real feel of the rewriting process and debate.