Author: jilllepore

Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s one-volume history of America 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. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise?These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that…

This New York Times Notable Book paints a vivid portrait of Jane Franklin — who suffered hardship while her brother Benjamin Franklin rose to fame. “As Lepore sheds light on this one, unsung life, she brilliantly illuminates an entire era” (Pulitzer Prize–winning author Geraldine Brooks).