Jill Lepore is a national treasure, a writer-with-attitude who rose from being a secretary at Harvard to chair of its History Department. She is an obsessive researcher, unearthing bits that keep the narrative moving and often funny. She writes for the New Yorker and her obsession with excellent prose and factual detail shows. (In a book this length, there will be exceptions, and on page 674 she commits a howler: "By 2000, the number of foreign-born Americans had risen to 28 million, constituting 29 percent of the U.S. population." This implies a US population of <100 million at a time we know the US had 280+m residents. She meant about ten percent).
Lepore does not mask her politics. She writes with assurance about the tortured history of American racism and sexism without victimizing or sanctifying African Americans or women. Her final chapters reflect a merciless critic of modern NRA/pro-choice religious conservatism and a pen equally dismissive identity liberalism. She is utterly unsparing of her postmodern structuralist colleagues in the academy. She portrays Bill Clintons as a spoiled buffoon and Hillary as smart but politically clueless.
Lepore weaves several themes throughout. America was born to struggle with "These Truths" as described in the opening sentence of the Declaration of Independence. What does "created equal" mean? What are our "inalienable rights"? How can we form a government that reflects "the consent of the governed"? These Truths are, at best, a work in progress -- but the work is noble and worthwhile. She writes as well of the history of single-volume histories of the United States -- acknowledging the shoulders on which her massive contribution stands. She tells the stories of immigrants, native peoples, slaves, and women not only from their perspective but from the perspective of those privileged to rule.
Order this book like you would order a fine meal. Savor each bite and treasure each course not only for the freshness but for the spices and the display. Because when your meal ends some 700 pages later, you will discover that you are not full. If you are like me, you will beg for more.
Final point: I read this in hardback but ordered the Kindle version to enable searches, bookmarks, and notes. I urge Amazon to give a Kindle copy of this or any other book to readers who purchase hardback copies. These are complementary, not rival goods. I am not getting more content, nor is a publisher incurring more cost, when I get the book in both analog and digital formats. There is a place for both, but no reason to charge us twice.
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Popular Highlights in this book
Between 1500 and 1800, roughly two and a half million Europeans moved to the Americas; they carried twelve million Africans there by force; and as many as fifty million Native Americans died, chiefly of disease.Highlighted by 3,098 Kindle readers- The most crucial right established under Magna Carta was the right to a trial by jury.Highlighted by 2,661 Kindle readers
- The only way to justify this contradiction, the only way to explain how one kind of people are born free while another kind of people are not, would be to sow a new seed, an ideology of race. It would take a long time to grow, and longer to wither.Highlighted by 2,326 Kindle readers
- In 1492, about sixty million people lived in Europe, fifteen million fewer than lived in the Americas.Highlighted by 2,252 Kindle readers
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About the author
History brilliantly distilled
To research a new history tour of New York City, I read two excellent books on the Erie Canal. Both books, and other extensive research, told of the boom that followed the opening of the canal in 1825. The books concentrated on the economic changes wrought by the canal: the plunge in shipping costs and the price of consumer goods, and the acceleration of travel time. That the canal made NY the “Empire State”. That with the canal New York surpassed New Orleans as the most important port in the United States. How patent applications soared as communities connected, no longer needing to be self-sufficient and could specialize.In These Truths Professor Jill Lepore brilliantly distills most of this and more into one page. She is the only author I found to highlight women and explain the profound social change that the Canal unleashed. In Rochester, for example, before the canal, flour milling was done in the master’s house with ten or twelve men helping out. The men were often paid in whiskey, not wages. The mill owner’s spouse was an invaluable part of production, often working alongside the men and preparing and sharing meals. “Homework” was an integral part of the economic process.With the canal flour production in Rochester exploded from 26,000 barrels in 1818 to a half million barrels at the end of 1830, only five years after the canal was completed. Work migrated from the home to the factory, with the head of the household gone ten or 12 hours a day. Men were now paid for their work in wages rather than booze.And the women? Back home, doing tasks that were now separate from the income-producing factory. Unpaid work was no longer considered valuable.In another home-centric detail, one that anyone who sleeps can identify with, Lepore notes that in 1818 only the rich could afford mattresses at $50 a pop. By 1848, thanks to the canal, the same mattress cost $5. Comfortable sleep was no longer a luxury.With these and more relatable details, These Truths brilliantly tells not just the story but captures the feeling of the consequences of the Erie Canal. Similar storytelling abounds in the book. These Truths is history as a page-turner. I could not put this book down.Ina Lee Selden is president of MANHATTAN PASSPORT, a specialized travel company whose latest tour, New York and How It Got That Way: Visionaries, Dreamers and Schemers and How They Shaped the Look and Outlook of Manhattan, debuted in December 2018.
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Top reviews from other countries
Daniel James Fogarty
An eminently readable American history
Reviewed in Brazil on October 24, 2023Client d'Amazon
Une superbe Histoire pas comme les autres de la dévastation du nouveau monde. Bravo Ms Lepore.
Reviewed in France on September 6, 2021M Clark
The truths listed in the Declaration of Independence
Reviewed in Germany on March 14, 2021markb
Thought provoking reflection on America's founding truths
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2021