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. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? The American experiment rests on three ideas-“these truths,” Jefferson called them-political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. 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. 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.

With These Truths, Lepore has produced a book that will shape our view of American history for decades to come.“Nothing short of a masterpiece.” -NPR BooksĪ New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history,' Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. To answer that question, Lepore wrestles with the state of American politics, the legacy of slavery, the persistence of inequality, and the nature of technological change. 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.

The American experiment rests on three ideas-'these truths,' Jefferson called them-political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. 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. 'Nothing short of a masterpiece.' -NPR BooksĪ New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year

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