These Truths – A History of the United States by Jill Lepore

Reason to Read

You should read These Truths if you want a history that feels alive and unvarnished. Unlike the textbooks you may remember from school, Lepore writes with a novelist’s flair and a journalist’s eye for irony. She doesn’t just list dates; she asks a central, gripping question: Has the American experiment actually worked? If you enjoy seeing how technology, law, and media have shaped our national character over 500 years, this is an essential, brain-expanding journey.

• Author: Jill Lepore
• Genre: History
• Your Name: Rich
• Brief Synopsis:

  ill Lepore, a Harvard historian and staff writer for The New Yorker, takes the founding “truths” of the United States—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people—and puts them on trial.

  The book traces the American story from 1492 to the age of the internet, but it does so by highlighting the voices that are often left out of history books. Lepore masterfully connects the dots between disparate events: how the printing press fueled the Revolution, how the telegraph changed the Civil War, and how the rise of polling and data-mining transformed modern politics. It is a story of a nation constantly arguing with itself about the meaning of its own existence.

  ⭐ Reviews
  The New York Times:

  “Nothing short of a masterpiece. Lepore’s writing is lyrical and sharp, and she has a knack for finding the small, human stories that illuminate massive historical shifts. It is the history of our time.”

  The Guardian:

  “A breathtaking achievement. It is a rare thing for a historian to be this engaging and authoritative at the same time. This is the book we need to understand how we got to where we are today.”