"If hindsight enhances our appreciation for our independence, it also blinds us to the stunning improbability of the achievement itself." – Joseph J. Ellis

"No event in American history which was so improbable at the time has seemed so inevitable in retrospect as the American Revolution," – Founding Brothers; However, Thomas Paine predicted that it was just a matter of common sense that an island couldn't rule a continent.

An excerpt, the last line in the book: "The more providential version of the American story triumphed in the history books, helped along by one final act of fate that everyone, then and now, regarded as the unmistakable voice of God." Jefferson and John Adams died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration" ("All the world's a stage," and some people make their exit right on cue).

"Despite the providential statements Paine, Adams, and Jefferson, the conclusions that look so foregone to us had yet to congeal for them. Men make history, but they can never know the history they are making . . . It seems safe to say that some form of representative government based on popular sovereignty and a market economy fueled by individual citizens have become the commonly accepted ingredients for national success in the world. These legacies are so familiar to us now, that the era in which they were born seems like a foregone conclusion."

But they weren't. We take them for granted, but neither the victory in the war for Independence, nor the eventual spread of freedom and liberty, could have been foreseen at the time.

P.S. I got this book, published by Alfred Knopf, 2002, providentially at a library l almost never go to. If you plan on doing some reading for the 250th birthday, it is highly recommendable ("Magnificent. Ellis has a Jeffersonian gift for language." – Kenneth Auchincloss, NEWSWEEK)

PPS: Borrowed from a meme on Facebook: "Alarm spread through the educational community this week after a homeschooled student reportedly began reading original historical documents instead of relying exclusively on modern summaries of them." And speaking of original sources, John Adams said:

"You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make good use of it." AMEN.