[ 84 ] BOOK REVIEWS concerning the contribution of Thomas Jefferson to the "real" Declaration of Independence. The problem historians face in this book—praised in the New York Times Book Review as "amazing" by David Brion Davis of Yale University—is whether it can be taken seriously as a thesis and as a work of historical research in its present form. A further problem is whether Wills' evidence is convincing to a general reader interested in historical subjects—aside from the author's pryotechnical performance in incompletely citing texts in intellectual history. Wills seems to want Jefferson dislodged from the shelf of the philosophy of natural rights and property, particularly that occupied by John Locke in the Essay on Understanding, and put somewhere else, although where this might be is not entirely clear. Perhaps Wills wants Jefferson placed on the Scottish Enlightenment shelf represented by Jefferson's tutor, William Small, and Francis Hutcheson in his Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. The major modern book under attack by Wills is Carl Becker's The Declaration of Independence, a Study in the History of Political Ideas (1922), which Wills refers to many times but never by its full title or even an approximation thereof, an act of almost unforgiveable rudeness. It is doubtful, however, whether Wills can do much to discredit Becker, whose book is firmly lodged as a classic of American historical and textual scholarship. It is further doubtful that Wills' dismissive asides of Merrill Jensen, Fawn Brodie, and others will do much one way or the other to the reputations of these persons. As Wills points out, Jefferson's library, containing the notebooks of his youth to the age of twenty-seven, was destroyed in a catastrophic fire at Shadwell Plantation in 1770. Hence, speculation on his writings and the books from which he formed early views is limited to what documentation remains. This speculation may also include Jefferson's own recollections in later life, always tinged with a sprightly recognition of the needs of the moment. Terms in the Declaration such as "pursuit of happiness" "inalienable" and a host of others have drawn the attention of writers for many years. Whether these can be traced back to their original sources—Whig writings of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Chambers' encyclopedia, or even the great Tory work of Dr. Johnson himself—is a matter that will never be resolved, no matter how shrewd or "curious" to use a word Wills admires, the attempt may be. In fact, some enterprising scholar should, as both Becker and Wills have neglected to do, direct his attention to Cramner's Book of Common Prayer—which Jefferson surely knew well and instinctively—for much of the rhythm and flavor of the Declaration. In addition to being a syndicated columnist, Wills is adjunct professor of