Danielle Allen, UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science, has authored Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality(Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2014). Troubled by the fact that so few Americans actually know what it says, Allen explores the arguments of the Declaration with both adult night students and University of Chicago undergraduates. Keenly aware that the Declaration is riddled with contradictions—liberating some while subjugating slaves and Native Americans—Allen and her students nonetheless came to see that the Declaration makes a coherent and riveting argument about equality. Allen describes the challenges faced by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston—the "Committee of Five" who had to write a document that reflected the aspirations of a restive population and forge an unprecedented social contract.