Don Wildman

Hey, thanks for listening to this episode about the Declaration of Independence.

If you want more context about these times when this was written, we've done a number of episodes in the past that will take you right there.

French and Indian War with Dan Snow, episode 27.

Boston Tea Party, explained, episode 127.

The Truth About Paul Revere's Ride, episode 271.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord, episode 238.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, episode 288.

and French spies in the American Revolution, episode 54.

All of those will give you more background on everything we've talked about.

I hope you enjoy.

Deep within the Earth's crust, tectonic plates grind and heave, colliding, folding, and thrusting vast slabs of rock skyward to form towering mountain ranges.

Ancient inland seas surge across the land, carving channels and leaving behind thick layers of fertile sediment.

Then come the glaciers, ice blanketing the uplifted Earth, scouring it clean, carving deep U-shaped valleys through granite and schist.

Mighty rivers then follow like lifelines, tracing the contours of the continent.

The restless motion of those plates sparks volcanoes and earthquakes, shaping and reshaping the land in an endless cycle of creation and destruction.

North America as we know it, and like all the Earth, was born from these colossal natural forces.

But humanity's recognition of that fact, our awakening to the Earth as a living, shifting thing,

was itself a seismic change in American thought.

Hi there, I'm Don Wildman.

Thanks for clicking through to another episode of American History Hit.