The award-winning author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman chronicles the origins and rise of today's divided America while investigating whether the nation has delivered on its promises of political equality, natural rights and the sovereignty of the people. - (Baker & Taylor)
Chronicles the origins and rise of today's divided America while investigating whether the nation has delivered on its promises of political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. - (Baker & Taylor)
"In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation. The American experiment rests on three ideas--"these truths," Jefferson called them--political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. And it rests, too, "on a dedication to inquiry, fearless and unflinching," writes Jill Lepore in a groundbreaking investigation into the American past that places truth itself at the center of the nation's history. In riveting prose, These Truths tells the story of America, beginning in 1492, to ask whether the course of events has proven the nation's founding truths, or belied them. "A nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history," Lepore writes, finding meaning in those very contradictions as she weaves American history into a majestic tapestry of faith and hope, of peril and prosperity, of technological progress and moral anguish. A spellbinding chronicle filled with arresting sketches of Americans from John Winthrop and Frederick Douglass to Pauli Murray and Phyllis Schlafly, These Truths offers an authoritative new history ofa great, and greatly troubled, nation"-- - (Baker & Taylor)
New York TimesNew Yorker - (WW Norton)
Written in elegiac prose, Lepore’s groundbreaking investigation places truth itself—a devotion to facts, proof, and evidence—at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas—"these truths," Jefferson called them—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. And it rests, too, on a fearless dedication to inquiry, Lepore argues, because self-government depends on it. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise?These TruthsAlong the way, Lepore’s sovereign chronicle is filled with arresting sketches of both well-known and lesser-known Americans, from a parade of presidents and a rogues’ gallery of political mischief makers to the intrepid leaders of protest movements, including Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist orator; William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate and ultimately tragic populist; Pauli Murray, the visionary civil rights strategist; and Phyllis Schlafly, the uncredited architect of modern conservatism.These Truths - (WW Norton)
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Harvard professor, New Yorker staff writer, and best-selling author Lepore (Joe Gould's Teeth, 2016) has written an ambitious and provocative attempt to interpret American history as an effort to fulfill and maintain certain fundamental principles. These "truths," as enunciated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, include political equality, natural (or creator-given) rights, and the ultimate sovereignty of the people. Though chronologically structured, this is more of a civics lesson than a narrative history. Throughout this journey from Columbus to the present, Lepore consistently stresses the often-anguishing contradictions between the ideals and realities of American life. A nation born in liberty accepted the enslavement of millions. The hope that technological progress would enhance freedom was accompanied by terrible economic exploitation in eighteenth-century mines and factories. But this is not a one-sided carping over national sins. Using a series of beautifully written vignettes, Lepore captures the nobility of the individuals and various movements that fought to narrow the gap between principles and everyday life. Of course, generally speaking, people don't live their lives as if they are part of a moral struggle or social experiment. Still, in the age of Trump, in which many long-accepted verities seem to be crumbling, Lepore's far-reaching interpretative history demands serious consideration. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Lepore is a historian with wide appeal, and this comprehensive work will answer readers' questions about who we are as a nation. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
America may be grounded in basic truths—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people—but as Harvard historian and National Book Award finalist Lepore notes, "A nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history." Her weighty one-volume history finds meaning in the contradictions.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal.
Library Journal Reviews
Providing historical context for national events, Lepore (history, Harvard Univ.; The Whites of Their Eyes; The Secret History of Wonder Woman) delivers a sweeping, balanced, and finely wrought narrative history of the United States. The vaulting ambition of the book is matched by the elegance and dry wit of Lepore's writing and careful rigor of her scholarship. She expertly marshals incidents, statistics, and analysis, resulting in a chronicle at once panoramic and richly detailed—like a giant medieval tapestry. Thematically, Lepore pegs her narrative to the great truths: equality, popular sovereignty, and consent of the governed. Those truths, the author contends, formed the basis of the American experiment and have been at the crux of most of the controversies and struggles the nation has faced. Lepore is particularly clear-eyed in documenting the United State's stumbling and often shameful record in addressing racial, gender, and economic inequality. Minibiographies—often of lesser-known figures, primarily women and people of color—are sprinkled throughout, adding texture and personality to this important work. VERDICT This thought-provoking and fascinating book stands to become the definitive one-volume U.S. history for a new generation. [See Prepub Alert, 3/26/18.]—Christopher Myers, Lake Oswego P.L., OR
Copyright 2018 Library Journal.