Self-Evident Truths Series: Statements of Equality - Series by Royal Fireworks Press

In this first book of the Self-Evident Truth Series, Michael Clay Thompson continues his study of the language used in important statements of equality in American history.

The Declaration of Independence is a revolutionary document. Its function was to announce to the world that the war in progress in North America was revolutionary in aim. And during the centuries that followed, it has proven to be a statement has changed the world as men and women have tried to live up to.

In this volume Thompson shows just how revolutionary were the concepts of the Declaration by relating them to the ideas of the Enlightenment and then focuses on the language and grammar that Jefferson used to announce that revolution. He contrasts the extraordinary dignified tone of the Declaration with other more inflammatory language used in the revolutionary war, and he shows precisely how Jefferson used grammar and vocabulary to achieve the ends he sought.

On July 4, 1776, King George III wrote in his diary "Nothing of importance happened today." He was wrong about that, but it was not simply by chance that he was wrong about it. A great deal of thought and effort went into making him wrong about it. In this book, Thompson shows so students can understand the brilliance of Jefferson's execution of the Congress' charge to write the Declaration of Independence.

Sample pages (pdf files) page 26 | page 32 | page 61

This second study in the Self-Evident Truth Series is a classic Thompson tour de force.

Four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, on that bloody battleground, a solemn ceremony was held to dedicate for the National Soldiers' Cemetery the seventeen acres where Confederate and Union soldiers had fought and lost their lives in the battle that decided the unity of the United States. The North’s most scholarly and illustrious orator, Edward Everett was to give the major address, sharing the platform with Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, who had been invited to formally set apart the grounds for their sacred use "by a few appropriate remarks after the oration".

Compared to the esteemed Everett, the press had been portraying Lincoln as a “baboon”, and having an “untutored” mind. In fact, Lincoln’s formal education totaled only one year.

Lincoln’s address lasted somewhat over a minute. He used only ten sentences, 267 words. Although it was not a poem, he used poetic devices to increase the power of his words. So perfect was Lincoln’s speech, that the great orator Everett, who was a past US Senator, President of Harvard, and Phi Beta Kappa poet, requested a copy of it from Lincoln saying, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.”

In Lincoln’s Ten Sentences, Michael Clay Thompson thoroughly explicates the noble “Gettysburg Address,” and introduces the reader to accomplished poet Abraham Lincoln and his use of detail, word sound by controlled vowels and consonants, impact of a spondee, strategic grammar, diction and vocabulary. Lincoln’s choice of words, said and unsaid, repetition of key words, use of words that the common people would understand; use of alliteration, and repetition of the pronoun “we,” are all explored.

Lincoln’s Ten Sentences includes a “Things to Do” and “Study Questions” and “Suggestions for the Teacher”

Sample pages (pdf files):page 47 | page 58

The Teacher Manual contains the student book with some extra pages and overwritten material.

Sample pages (pdf files): page 17 | page 64

The third in the Self-Evident Truth Series, Michael Clay Thompson continues his study of the language used in important statements of equality in American history. This examination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr's I have a Dream speech, looks at the poetry, grammar and vocabulary of the most important modern statement of America's commitment to the equality of its citizens.

Free at Last examines how powerful emotion is built up by repeated ideas and words; how King's vision of the future and great call to freedom was achieved by carefully chosen vocabulary and word pictures conjured by metaphor; by the poetics of meter, alliteration and assonance, and by other carefully selected grammatical devices.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28 1963. Its purpose was to draw attention to the injustice of segregation and to push for jobs and economic equality. The statue of Lincoln was chosen as the backdrop for the speeches and Dr King began with the words that echoed the beginning of the Gettysburg Address : "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation… but one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free."

Sample page: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,(pdf): page 3

These next pages are from the Teacher Manual, illustrating the use of language. The Student book is the same but without the circular inserts for the teacher. page 13 | page 20 | page 28

Barack Obama's speech on race, on the 18th March 2008 in Philadelphia, was not just a campaign speech; its theme was an issue the nation cannot ignore and it is the contention of this book that the speech is in the tradition of the great American statements of equality that began with the Declaration of Independence and include Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech.

Thomas Milton Kemnitz places the speech in its political and historical context, sees it as part of a new national conversation about race, analyzes the six parts of the speech, and breaks down how Obama conveys his meaning by analyzing his vocabulary, grammar, poetic devices and structure.

Obama describes the issue of anger and bitterness that has led to the present situation. He describes the common goals and aspirations of white and black communities and the path along which Americans must travel to achieve unity and a better future for all.

This edition is for use in schools or homeschooling and is particularly useful in gifted education. It provides insight not only to Obama as a speechmaker but also to Obama's approach to questions of race, to social and political conditions and problems and the way forward for the nation. The speech is distinguished by its adult and nuanced approach to the topics he discussed and by its respect for the intelligence of the voting public.

The speech was received mostly in silence by its original audience, as befitted its seriousness and complexity. Since then the debate on this issue has been fast and furious on the Internet and in chat rooms. Dr Kemnitz believes the speech will resonate and be remembered for many years to come.

This is a worthy addition to the Royal Fireworks Press Self-Evident Truths series for gifted 7th to 12th graders. It is in a student format of 8.5 by 11 inches and illustrated.

You can see sample pages and read excerpts on its website: Obama on race.

View an excerpt of a talk on this book by the author at Mt St Mary College, NY  (YouTube video, 8 mins 41)