Myths and the American Nation: Jefferson’s Declaration and the development of American nationalism

Abstract

The USA as a multinational country of immigrants is nevertheless a fertile ground for competing nationalist ideologies and the consequently competing myth-building that surrounds the construction of national identity. !e myth of the 1776 Declaration of Independence as an important founding document for domestic politics in the United States continues to spread through popular culture and academic textbooks. The claim of the Jefferson’s Declaration as an aspirational founding document helped establish a myth supporting creedal nationalism, but obscures the arc of the ideological debate over national identity.