Jill Lepore, "These Truths"

Jill Lepore, "These Truths", at Politics and Prose on 10/3/18.

The United States might seem too vast, too contradictory, and too various for a one-volume comprehensive history, but in this rich and accessible work, Lepore shows that these are the very traits that define the nation. With Jefferson’s three truths—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people—as her fulcrum, Lepore explores how well the country has hewed to its originating ideals, starting with the clash between the claim to freedom and the reality of slavery. Counterpoising stubborn national dilemmas with the resilience of civic institutions, and illustrating ideas with lively biographies, Lepore, a New Yorker staff writer, author of books including The Secret History of Wonder Woman, and a professor of history at Harvard, tells us what we need to know about our past in order to understand its present and prepare for its future.

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her Book of Ages was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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