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These Truths

These Truths: A History of the United States is a 2018 book by Jill Lepore, an American historian and staff writer for The New Yorker, that offers a single-volume synthesis of U.S. history from the arrival of Europeans in 1492 to the early 21st century, centered on the three "truths" from the Declaration of Independence—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people—and assessing whether the American experiment has affirmed or contradicted them.^[1] Published by W. W. Norton & Company, the 932-page work traces conflicts over these principles through events like the founding era, slavery, the Civil War, industrialization, civil rights struggles, and technological disruptions, arguing that governance has often failed to extend rights equally while innovations in communication and media have repeatedly challenged popular sovereignty.^[1] Lepore, the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University, frames the narrative around empirical tensions between ideals and realities, emphasizing causal chains from constitutional debates to modern polarization, though her analysis prioritizes expansions of equality amid persistent hierarchies.^[2] The book received widespread acclaim for its ambitious scope and readability, becoming an international bestseller and winning the 2019 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations for distinguished writing on U.S. foreign policy and history.^[2]^[3] Critics from conservative perspectives have faulted These Truths for a selective emphasis on systemic inequalities—particularly racial and gender-based—that aligns with prevailing academic orthodoxies, potentially underrepresenting the role of individual agency, cultural traditions, and economic liberties in driving progress, while downplaying evidence of press bias in historical accounts.^[4]^[5] Others note its limited engagement with non-rational elements like faith and custom in shaping political outcomes, reflecting a rationalist bias common in elite historiography.^[6] Despite such debates, the volume stands as a influential, if contested, reckoning with America's foundational claims against its empirical record.^[4]

Background and Authorship

Jill Lepore's Background

Jill Lepore grew up in the suburbs of Worcester, Massachusetts, the daughter of a junior high school principal and an art teacher.^[7]^[8] She earned a B.A. in English from Tufts University in 1987.^[9] After graduation, she held administrative positions at Harvard University, including as a secretary, before entering graduate studies.^[8]^[10] Lepore received an M.A. in American Culture from the University of Michigan in 1990 and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in 1995, with a specialization in the history of early America.^[9]^[11] Following her doctorate, she taught as a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and Boston University.^[10] In 2003, she joined the Harvard University History Department, rising to the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professorship of American History.^[9] She chaired the university's History and Literature Program from 2005 to 2010, and again in 2012 and 2014, and was named a Harvard College Professor in 2012.^[9] In July 2024, she became a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.^[12] Since 2005, Lepore has served as a staff writer at The New Yorker, where her essays cover American history, law, literature, and politics.^[9] Her scholarly work has earned awards including the 1998 Bancroft Prize for her first book, the 2005 Anisfield-Wolf Award, and the 2021 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought.^[9] She holds honorary degrees from Yale University, New York University, and Tufts University, and has been a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.^[9]^[7] Lepore previously served as president of the Society of American Historians and as a commissioner for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.^[9]

Conception and Research Process

The idea for These Truths originated in 2010, when Jill Lepore, prompted by the rise of the Tea Party movement, began teaching a one-semester survey course on United States history at Harvard University, aiming to construct a cohesive narrative amid polarized interpretations of the past.^[13] This teaching effort laid the groundwork for the book's structure, as Lepore developed weekly lectures that evolved into draft chapters, allowing her to test and refine the chronological and thematic framework with student input.^[14] In 2015, W.W. Norton editor Jon Durbin approached Lepore to author a U.S. history textbook, but she instead pursued a narrative trade book under editor Bob Weil, seeking to craft an accessible, single-volume history for a general audience rather than an academic text.^[14] The writing process spanned three years, culminating in the book's completion by mid-2018, with Lepore integrating material from her ongoing Harvard course to ensure the narrative remained dynamic and responsive to contemporary debates over national identity and governance.^[14] Research for These Truths drew primarily on a synthesis of five decades of U.S. historical scholarship, supplemented by Lepore's own archival investigations and previously published essays from The New Yorker, where she has contributed since 2005.^[14] Rather than conducting extensive new primary research for this volume, Lepore focused on distilling and interconnecting established historiographical insights around the Declaration of Independence's core propositions—political equality, natural rights, and popular sovereignty—while grappling with the challenge of compressing over 500 years of events into approximately 900 pages, often requiring difficult decisions on exclusions that disrupted her sleep.^[14] This approach prioritized causal connections across eras over exhaustive detail, reflecting Lepore's view that Americans needed a unified historical account to counter fragmented, partisan retellings.^[14]

Publication Details

Release and Editions

These Truths: A History of the United States was initially released on September 18, 2018, by W. W. Norton & Company as a hardcover first edition comprising 932 pages.^[15]^[16] The book carried ISBN-10 0393635244 and focused on delivering a single-volume narrative of American history from 1492 onward.^[15] A revised edition appeared in 2019, distributed in paperback format with 960 pages, incorporating updates to the original content while maintaining the core structure.^[17]^[18] This version, published by the same house, addressed minor refinements amid the book's reception.^[18] In 2023, W. W. Norton released an Inquiry Edition tailored for educational use, expanding the work into a two-volume textbook format that integrates primary sources and guiding questions for analysis.^[19]^[20] The combined volume spans 1,456 pages, with separate volumes covering distinct periods, such as Volume 1 with ISBN-13 9781324046424.^[21]^[22] This edition, dated July 1, 2023, emphasizes evidence-based inquiry over narrative alone.^[23]

Initial Promotion and Sales

"These Truths" was released on September 18, 2018, by W. W. Norton & Company in hardcover format, priced at $39.95, with initial promotion leveraging author Jill Lepore's established reputation as a Harvard professor and New Yorker staff writer.^[15] The publisher emphasized the book's ambition as a single-volume history spanning from 1492 to the present, positioning it as a timely examination of American ideals amid contemporary political divisions.^[24] Pre-publication efforts included advance excerpts and reviews in outlets such as Harvard Magazine, which highlighted Lepore's excavation of foundational American values.^[25] Marketing focused on literary events and media appearances, including Lepore's participation in the Portland Arts & Lectures series on September 26, 2018, where the book was presented as an in-depth account of national origins and divisions.^[26] Additional promotion came through interviews, such as on CBS News on September 20, 2018, discussing the book's narrative arc from Columbus to modern challenges, and in Newsweek on September 28, 2018, linking historical polarization to the present.^[27]^[28] These efforts capitalized on Lepore's prior acclaim, including Pulitzer finalist status, to target educated audiences interested in comprehensive historical synthesis. The book achieved rapid commercial success, debuting on The New York Times bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction and ranking #8 as of October 1, 2018, reflecting strong initial sales driven by critical buzz and the author's platform.^[29] Specific first-week sales figures were not publicly disclosed by Nielsen BookScan or the publisher, but its quick ascent to bestseller status indicated demand exceeding typical nonfiction releases, with sustained presence on the list amid competition from political memoirs.^[15] By late 2018, it had garnered awards like the Council on Foreign Relations' Arthur Ross Book Award, further boosting visibility and sales momentum.^[3]

Content Structure

Overall Framework and Scope

These Truths: A History of the United States presents a chronological narrative spanning from the European arrival in the Americas in 1492 to the 2016 presidential election, encompassing over five centuries of historical developments.^[30]^[14] The work, exceeding 900 pages in its primary edition, integrates political, social, and technological dimensions to trace the evolution of the American republic into a democracy, highlighting both achievements and persistent contradictions such as inequality and governance challenges.^[31]^[32] The framework organizes events around the foundational principles derived from the Declaration of Independence—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people—which Jefferson termed "these truths."^[33] These concepts serve as a lens to evaluate the nation's progress and failures, rather than a strict thematic division, allowing Lepore to examine how constitutional governance, citizenship, and representation have been contested through wars, reforms, and technological shifts.^[34] The scope prioritizes the interplay of ideas with empirical realities, covering pivotal episodes like the founding era, Civil War, civil rights movements, and post-9/11 developments, while allocating significant attention—nearly 100 pages—to the early 21st century.^[35]^[14] This structure enables a unified inquiry into whether historical events affirm or undermine the American experiment, emphasizing causal connections over isolated anecdotes and drawing on primary documents to assess the fidelity to founding ideals amid expansions of suffrage, industrialization, and global influence.^[25]^[36] The narrative avoids hagiography, portraying figures and institutions through their actions' consequences, and extends to underrepresented perspectives on race, gender, and labor to illuminate systemic tensions.^[25]^[37]

Key Historical Periods Covered

The book delineates American history across four principal eras, commencing with European encounters in the Americas and extending through the early 21st century, emphasizing the evolution of foundational principles amid conflicts over governance, rights, and equality. Part One, titled "The Idea" (1492–1799), examines the colonial foundations, including Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage, the establishment of European settlements, the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the American Revolution (1775–1783), and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787–1788, framing these as the genesis of national sovereignty and republican ideals tested by monarchical rule and indigenous dispossession.^[17]^[38] Part Two, "The People" (1800–1865), addresses westward expansion, the institution of chattel slavery—encompassing over four million enslaved individuals by 1860—and the sectional crisis culminating in the Civil War (1861–1865), which resulted in approximately 620,000 deaths and the abolition of slavery via the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, highlighting failures to extend political equality to African Americans and Native populations displaced through policies like the Indian Removal Act of 1830.^[39]^[17] Part Three, "The State" (1865–1945), covers Reconstruction (1865–1877), the Gilded Age's industrialization—marked by the rise of monopolies and labor unrest, such as the Haymarket Riot of 1886—and Progressive reforms, followed by U.S. entry into World War I (1917–1918) and the Great Depression (1929–1939), which saw unemployment peak at 25% in 1933, alongside New Deal interventions and World War II mobilization (1941–1945), evaluating the expansion of federal authority against persistent racial and economic inequalities.^[39]^[40] Part Four, "The Machine" (1945–2016), traces postwar prosperity, the Cold War (1947–1991)—including the Korean War (1950–1953) and Vietnam War (1955–1975), which claimed over 58,000 U.S. lives—the Civil Rights Movement (1954–1968), technological advancements like the internet's commercialization in the 1990s, and political polarization through events such as the September 11, 2001, attacks and the 2008 financial crisis, critiquing how mass media and computing reshaped public discourse on rights and governance up to the 2016 election.^[39]^[41]

Core Themes and Interpretations

The Three "Truths" as Organizing Principle

In These Truths, Jill Lepore frames the narrative of American history around three foundational principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence, which Thomas Jefferson described as self-evident truths: political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people.^[33]^[42] These concepts—drawn from the document's assertion that "all men are created equal," endowed with "unalienable Rights" such as "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," and that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed"—serve as the book's analytical lens for examining the nation's evolution from the Age of Discovery through the early 21st century.^[33] Lepore posits that the American experiment's core tension lies in the persistent struggle to reconcile these ideals with realities like slavery, territorial expansion, industrialization, and modern political polarization, using them not as static ideals but as dynamic benchmarks against which historical developments are measured.^[43] The organizing principle structures the book chronologically while weaving these truths into evaluations of key events and figures, highlighting expansions and contractions of equality (e.g., from the exclusion of enslaved people and women at the founding to the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments' gradual inclusions), protections of natural rights amid conflicts like the Civil War and civil rights movements, and assertions of popular sovereignty through constitutional mechanisms and electoral upheavals.^[39] For instance, Lepore traces how the sovereignty of the people manifested in the Constitution's ratification debates and evolved through crises such as the nullification controversy of the 1830s and the New Deal's reassertion of federal consent-based governance, critiquing deviations like the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 as erosions of these principles.^[44] This approach emphasizes causal linkages between ideological commitments and policy outcomes, such as how failures to uphold natural rights fueled abolitionist arguments and Reconstruction efforts post-1865.^[35] Lepore's use of these truths as an organizing framework underscores a historiographical commitment to ideas as drivers of history, rather than mere events in isolation, allowing her to assess the United States' fidelity to its founding propositions across eras like the Gilded Age's inequalities and the post-World War II expansions of rights via the GI Bill and Voting Rights Act of 1965.^[37] However, this principle has drawn scrutiny for potentially overemphasizing aspirational rhetoric at the expense of structural contradictions, such as the Constitution's original compromises on slavery, which Lepore acknowledges but interprets through a progressive lens of incremental fulfillment rather than inherent flaws.^[6] By 2016, as detailed in the book's conclusion, Lepore argues these truths faced existential threats from technological disruptions and partisan distrust, evidenced by events like the 2000 election recount and rising income disparities documented in census data showing the top 1% capturing 20% of national income by 2012.^[45]

Equality, Rights, and Governance Narratives

Lepore structures These Truths around three interlocking principles derived from the Declaration of Independence: political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people, which she interprets as the foundation for self-governance through the consent of the governed.^[33] These narratives frame the book's examination of American history as a continuous struggle to reconcile aspirational ideals with practical contradictions, often emphasizing exclusions and hypocrisies over institutional successes.^[46] The equality narrative centers on the Declaration's assertion that "all men are created equal," which Lepore contrasts with the nation's origins in slavery, the dispossession of Native Americans, and the subordination of women and non-property owners.^[46] She details how the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 theoretically extended equal protection to Black men but was undermined by Jim Crow laws, literacy tests, and over 4,000 lynchings between 1882 and 1968, while women's suffrage arrived only with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 and the Equal Rights Amendment failed ratification in 1982.^[46] Lepore posits that these failures reveal a foundational inequality, questioning whether a republic built on such exclusions can ever achieve true political equality, with activism by African Americans, women, and other groups driving incremental expansions of citizenship.^[47] In treating natural rights—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—Lepore traces their evolution from philosophical roots in Locke and Enlightenment thought to constitutional embodiment, but highlights systemic denials, such as the enslavement of 4 million people by 1860 and post-emancipation disenfranchisement through poll taxes and violence.^[46] She argues that rights became "the stuff of science" rather than religion post-founding, influencing expansions like the abolition of slavery via the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 and civil rights legislation in the 1960s, yet persistent threats like mass incarceration—reaching 2.3 million by 2016—undermine their universality.^[25] This framing prioritizes violations over the mechanisms, such as federalism and judicial review, that have protected rights for majorities, reflecting a historiographical emphasis on progressive reforms to enforce them.^[4] The governance narrative examines the principle that governments derive "just powers from the consent of the governed," portraying American democracy as an experiment in popular sovereignty that expanded from colonial assemblies to universal suffrage but faced repeated crises of representation.^[33] Lepore covers the shift from state-centric power under the Articles of Confederation to a centralized Constitution in 1787, the enfranchisement battles culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and modern challenges like gerrymandering and voter suppression affecting 11% of eligible voters in some states by 2016.^[46] She endorses expansions of administrative state authority, such as the New Deal's regulatory frameworks in the 1930s, as necessary to realize consent amid economic disparities, while critiquing laissez-faire approaches like those under President Harding, whose policies she links to inequality despite data showing industrial production rising 70% from 1922 to 1928.^[4] This perspective aligns with a view favoring interventionist governance to include marginalized voices, potentially understating market-driven recoveries and property rights as alternative bases for consent.^[47]

Historiographical Approach

Sources, Methodology, and Narrative Style

Jill Lepore's These Truths draws primarily on a synthesis of established historical scholarship spanning five decades, supplemented by her own archival research and prior journalistic work, such as essays in The New Yorker on topics like voting mechanisms.^[14]^[48] The narrative incorporates primary sources including foundational documents like the Declaration of Independence, legal and philosophical treatises, speeches, and writings from diverse figures such as abolitionist Benjamin Lay, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, and Black intellectual David Walker, using these to illustrate broader trends in rights and governance.^[25]^[48] An inquiry edition appends curated sets of primary source documents at the end of each chapter under "Weighing the Evidence," presenting multiple perspectives to facilitate analysis beyond simple pro-con debates.^[49] Methodologically, Lepore employs a chronological framework as the structural "clothesline" for the book, spanning from 1492 to 2016, divided into four parts: the first 300 years of colonization and founding, the antebellum era, Reconstruction through World War II, and the post-1945 technological age.^[25]^[14] This timeline anchors thematic "pins" examining whether the United States has upheld its three self-evident truths—political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people through consent—framed as inquiries rather than settled conclusions.^[49]^[25] The approach prioritizes objective analysis of causal sequences—why and how events unfolded—over moralistic judgments, with material selection refined through testing in her Harvard U.S. history survey course starting in 2015 to ensure coherence and student provocation.^[14] While comprehensive in political and institutional history, the method has drawn critique for selective reliance on certain secondary interpretations, particularly in depictions of Indigenous experiences where colonial-era accounts are incorporated without sufficient counterbalancing contemporary scholarship.^[50] The narrative style is character-driven yet idea-centric, weaving biographical profiles of key individuals into a cohesive arc that avoids portraying figures as heroes or villains, instead presenting them as representative Americans grappling with the nation's founding principles.^[25] Written in Lepore's singular voice as a trade history before adaptation into a textbook, it employs absorbing, precise prose to cover institutions like Congress and the Supreme Court alongside marginalized voices, emphasizing the interplay of disputation, governance, and technological change in testing the durability of rights.^[14]^[49] Chapters open with guiding questions to underscore tensions, fostering a style that provokes reflection on historical contingencies without prescriptive ideology, though some observers note an underlying progressive tilt in interpretive framing.^[49]^[25]

Emphasis on Ideas over Events

In These Truths, Jill Lepore adopts a historiographical framework that subordinates the chronology of specific events to the persistent contestation and evolution of core founding ideas, particularly the Declaration of Independence's assertions of human equality, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and government's legitimacy derived from the consent of the governed. Rather than presenting American history as a linear sequence of battles, elections, or legislative milestones, Lepore structures her narrative to evaluate how the "course of events" from 1492 onward either affirms or undermines these principles, treating events as evidentiary tests for ideological claims.^[51] This approach draws from intellectual history traditions, akin to those in Bernard Bailyn's works on revolutionary ideology, but applies them sweepingly across five centuries to assess the nation's self-proclaimed truths against empirical outcomes. Events, while detailed—such as the 1619 arrival of enslaved Africans, the 1787 Constitutional Convention, or the 1965 Voting Rights Act—are invoked not for their isolated causality but as pivotal moments revealing tensions within the ideological framework. For example, the Civil War (1861–1865) is framed less as a military campaign driven by sectional economics and more as a crucible exposing the contradiction between proclaimed equality and the persistence of chattel slavery, which contradicted the rights endowed by the Creator.^[51] Lepore argues that such episodes demonstrate how ideas propel historical agency, with figures like Abraham Lincoln (elected 1860) invoked to illustrate debates over natural rights rather than tactical decisions at Gettysburg. This prioritization enables a thematic continuity, linking disparate eras through recurring questions of whether governance has expanded consent or entrenched hierarchies, but it risks compressing multifactor causalities, such as geopolitical contingencies in the World Wars (1917–1918, 1941–1945), into ideational molds.^[52] Lepore's method reflects a deliberate rejection of "great man" or event-centric narratives prevalent in mid-20th-century textbooks, instead echoing 18th-century Enlightenment historiography that viewed republics as experiments in applied philosophy. By 2018, when the book was published, this ideational emphasis served to critique contemporary disillusionment, positing that failures in realizing truths—like disenfranchisement of over 11% of Black voters in the Jim Crow South until the 1960s—stem from deviations from first articulated principles rather than inevitable event progressions.^[24] Reviews from outlets like The Atlantic have praised this for providing "a unifying thread" amid fragmented modern histories, though conservative commentators, such as those in Law & Liberty, contend it imposes a progressive teleology on events, undervaluing contingency and treating ideas as historically autonomous drivers detached from material forces like industrialization (post-1820s) or technological shifts (e.g., computing's rise after 1945).^[5] Lepore's Harvard and New Yorker affiliations, institutions with documented left-leaning institutional biases in historical interpretation, inform this framework's optimism about ideas' redemptive potential, yet the approach's rigor lies in its verifiable alignment with primary sources like the Federalist Papers (1787–1788), which themselves emphasized philosophical deliberation over episodic recounting.^[53]

Positive Reception

Mainstream and Academic Praise

These Truths received widespread acclaim from mainstream media outlets upon its publication in September 2018, often highlighted for its ambitious scope and narrative clarity. NPR described it as "nothing short of a masterpiece of American history," praising author Jill Lepore as "an extraordinarily gifted writer" for engaging with the nation's foundational promises through a comprehensive lens.^[36] The New York Times commended the book as an "elegant, readable, sobering" one-volume history that provides a "steadying hand" amid contemporary political turmoil, positioning it as a modern civics guide with precise scholarship.^[24] Similarly, the Washington Post named it a Notable Book of the Year, with historian H.W. Brands noting its distillation of core American truths from Jefferson and Franklin, offering historical clues to contemporary divisions.^[54] Bill Gates endorsed the work as "the most honest account of the American story" he had read and "one of the most beautifully written," appreciating its inclusion of diverse perspectives and vivid details on events like congressional violence in the antebellum era, though he critiqued the final section on recent decades.^[55] The book achieved commercial success as a New York Times bestseller, reflecting broad appeal in popular discourse.^[15] In academic circles, praise centered on Lepore's synthesis of political and intellectual history, with the U.S. Intellectual History Society blog calling it a "masterpiece" for modestly defining the nation amid historiographical debates.^[56] Time magazine selected it as one of the top ten nonfiction books of the decade, affirming its influence on scholarly discussions of American ideals.^[12] Such endorsements, however, emanate predominantly from institutions and reviewers aligned with progressive interpretations of history, which may prioritize critiques of power structures over alternative emphases on individual agency or institutional resilience. Lepore's affiliation as a Harvard professor and New Yorker contributor likely amplified reception within elite academic networks, where systemic left-leaning biases can favor narratives underscoring unfulfilled egalitarian promises.^[57]

Notable Endorsements and Awards

These Truths was awarded the 2019 Arthur Ross Book Award (Gold Medal) by the Council on Foreign Relations for its contribution to understanding national history in relation to global affairs.^[3] The book was shortlisted for the 2019 Cundill History Prize, recognizing excellence in historical nonfiction.^[30] It also received the 2019 Massachusetts Book Award in the nonfiction category from the Massachusetts Center for the Book.^[30] Prominent endorsements included praise from Bill Gates, who called it a "magisterial telling of our nation's history" and recommended it in his 2019 holiday book selections for its comprehensive scope from 1492 onward.^[58]^[59] Gates highlighted its value in grappling with the American experiment's ideals amid contradictions.^[58] The work achieved New York Times bestseller status, reflecting broad commercial and critical reception.^[15]

Criticisms and Controversies

Conservative and Ideological Critiques

Conservative critics have argued that Jill Lepore's These Truths exhibits a progressive ideological bias by privileging government intervention and reformist narratives while downplaying the achievements of limited-government policies. For instance, Victor Davis Hanson contends that Lepore uncritically praises progressive measures like the Federal Radio Commission established by the Radio Act of 1927 as "one of the most consequential and underappreciated acts of Progressive reform," without addressing how such administrative expansions led to inefficiencies, such as protracted and costly licensing battles under vague "public interest" standards.^[4] Hanson further notes her omission of the economic successes under President Warren G. Harding's administration, including a 70% rise in industrial production, 40% increase in gross national product, and 30% growth in per capita income from 1922 to 1928, which contrasted sharply with the prolonged recession under Franklin D. Roosevelt's early New Deal policies.^[4] ^[60] Reviewers from outlets aligned with traditionalist conservatism have highlighted Lepore's selective treatment of historical figures and events, often whitewashing progressive icons while misrepresenting conservatives. Stephen Tootle in National Review criticizes her portrayal of Woodrow Wilson and Margaret Sanger without sufficient scrutiny of their eugenics advocacy, and her misrepresentation of Richard Nixon's "Checkers" speech as transforming the GOP into a "party of the people," alongside errors in depicting the three-fifths compromise and the origins of progressivism.^[61] Tootle argues this reflects a broader neglect of conservative political traditions, framing American history through a liberal lens that assumes objectivity for establishment views while dismissing conservative and postmodern critiques.^[61] Ideological critiques extend to Lepore's handling of constitutional issues, particularly the Second Amendment and press freedom, where she is accused of aligning with modern progressive interpretations over originalist readings. In Law & Liberty, the reviewer faults her denial of contemporary media bias, even as her narrative demonstrates historical equivalents, such as conflating Social Darwinism with eugenics while overlooking Progressive Era proponents of forced sterilizations.^[5] Lepore quotes former Chief Justice Warren Burger to label libertarian Second Amendment interpretations a "fraud," but the critique counters that this ignores scholarly consensus, including from liberals like Laurence Tribe and Sanford Levinson, on individual rights foundations in the founding era.^[5] ^[62] Similarly, her emphasis on race and slavery—occupying about one-third of early chapters—is seen as echoing the New York Times' 1619 Project by prioritizing grievance over the Constitution's anti-slavery mechanisms, as articulated by figures like Frederick Douglass and Harry Jaffa.^[5] ^[63] In examinations of recent history, conservative analysts decry Lepore's narrative as fragmented and conspiratorial, overemphasizing manipulation by media, polling, and conservative forces while underplaying foreign policy contexts. A Claremont Review of Books assessment describes more than half the book—over 400 pages—as a "postmodern pastiche" focused post-1900 on wire-pulling by political consultants and right-wing media, including Silicon Valley's role, portraying polling as manufacturing opinion rather than gauging it, with factual slips like placing the Battle of Midway in Hawaii or misdating Lincoln-Douglas debates.^[64] The Russell Kirk Center review adds that her coverage downplays U.S. interventions abroad, rendering events like 9/11 and the Iraq War abrupt, and accepts uncritically media accounts of campus protests, such as those against Milo Yiannopoulos, while offering superficial analysis of conservative figures like Phyllis Schlafly.^[65] Collectively, these critiques portray These Truths as subordinating empirical historical balance to a liberal teleology that rejects foundational American principles in favor of perpetual reform.^[61]^[64]

Factual Disputes and Interpretive Biases

Critics have identified several factual inaccuracies in These Truths, including a mischaracterization of the 1796 presidential election as resulting in a tie between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, whereas the actual tie occurred in the 1800 election between Jefferson and Aaron Burr.^[66] Another error attributes to President James K. Polk a desire to acquire Florida alongside Texas, despite Florida having been under full U.S. control since its annexation in 1821, well before Polk's 1845–1849 term.^[66] These mistakes, among others noted by reviewers, undermine claims of comprehensive accuracy in recounting key political events.^[66] In treatments of Native American history, Lepore relies on secondary sources that propagate earlier inaccuracies, such as David J. Weber's The Spanish Frontier in North America, which draws from Woodbury Lowery's 1901 work ultimately tracing to Frank Hamilton Cushing's discredited accounts of Zuni culture, including denigrating descriptions like referring to Zuni dwellings as a "hive."^[50] Historian Malinda Maynor Lowery has critiqued the book's limited coverage of Native experiences after 1890, arguing it marginalizes ongoing Indigenous agency and sovereignty in national narratives.^[45] Initial printings also contained minor errors, such as confusing "fighter planes" with "fighter jets," later corrected in subsequent editions.^[45] Interpretive biases emerge in Lepore's selective emphasis on the failures of America's founding truths—political equality, natural rights, and self-government—often framing historical progress through a lens of persistent hypocrisy, particularly regarding race and inequality, while downplaying counterexamples of institutional resilience or conservative contributions to rights expansion.^[5] For instance, the book denies the reality of contemporary media bias by asserting that "the truth" equates to social consensus rather than objective reporting, even as it documents partisan distortions in 19th-century journalism, revealing an inconsistency that aligns with prevailing academic skepticism toward claims of left-leaning institutional slant.^[5] This approach, while privileging legal and intellectual history over granular events, has drawn criticism for imposing a progressive teleology that interprets deviations from egalitarian ideals as systemic flaws rather than contingent trade-offs in causal historical processes.^[45] Such framing risks subordinating empirical contingencies to a narrative arc critiquing power structures, potentially influenced by the author's position within academia, where surveys indicate systemic liberal skews in historical scholarship.

Omissions in Treatment of Specific Groups

Critics have noted significant omissions in These Truths regarding the historical experiences and agency of Native American peoples, often portraying them through a lens of victimhood and disappearance rather than ongoing political actors. The book names only seven Native individuals across its more than 900 pages, with none from the 20th or 21st centuries, and excludes key events such as the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the formation of the National Congress of American Indians in the 1940s, the federal termination policy of the 1950s and 1960s, and the 2016 Standing Rock protests.^[67] This approach reinforces a "vanishing Indians" narrative akin to 19th-century depictions critiqued within the text itself, neglecting Indigenous resistance, alliances, and sovereignty struggles, such as diverse Native alignments during the American Revolution—where groups like the Oneidas supported the patriots—or the Cherokee Confederacy's participation in the Civil War.^[67] ^[68] Furthermore, Lepore's reliance on colonial-era sources without sufficient critical scrutiny, such as unverified 19th-century accounts of Zuni traditions, perpetuates stereotypes of Native peoples as primitive or awestruck by European technology, omitting engagement with Indigenous oral histories, wampum records, or scholarship from Native historians.^[50] The treatment of American Indians also overlooks their ambiguous legal status and influence on U.S. citizenship debates, mentioning only the Cherokee Removal of the 1830s and the Dawes Act of 1887 while ignoring broader land expropriations, like the 1980 Supreme Court ruling affirming Sioux ownership of the Black Hills, or tribal self-determination efforts exemplified by the Lumbee Indians.^[68] Specific inaccuracies compound these gaps, including misattributing the 1969–1971 Alcatraz occupation to the American Indian Movement rather than the Indians of All Tribes collective and erasing Native presence in an image retitled as depicting "pioneers heading west" despite its original context of a Missouri River trading post.^[67] Such omissions limit the book's exploration of U.S. history from an Indigenous perspective, reducing Native peoples to peripheral figures in national narratives of equality and governance.^[68] Another area of critique involves the inadequate coverage of labor and working-class groups, whose agency in shaping American institutions receives sparse attention relative to the book's scope. Labor unions appear in only four index entries, averaging one mention every 200 pages, with minimal discussion of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) or Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) despite their pivotal roles in 20th-century reforms.^[69] The New Deal and Great Society programs are framed as products of presidential initiative, omitting the preceding strike waves in regions like Manhattan, Appalachia, and Detroit that compelled policy changes, as well as labor's contributions to allied movements, such as the United Automobile Workers' funding and organization for the 1963 March on Washington.^[69] This downplays how union solidarity underpinned mid-century liberalism and Democratic electoral strength, presenting a history that underemphasizes class-based collective action in favor of elite-driven narratives.^[69]

Impact and Legacy

Influence on Historical Discourse

"These Truths" has prompted discussions among historians about the viability of comprehensive national narratives in an era of fragmented scholarship, with some viewing it as a revival of mid-20th-century syntheses akin to Richard Hofstadter's works, while others critique its selective emphasis on political ideals over broader social complexities.^[70] A 2020 roundtable in The American Historical Review featured essays analyzing its structure and arguments, highlighting how Lepore's focus on "self-evident truths" like equality and governance shapes interpretations of American exceptionalism and failure, though participants noted interpretive flaws in its treatment of key events.^[71] In academic pedagogy, the book has been adopted in university survey courses and supplemental reading for U.S. history majors, praised for its chronological accessibility and critical prompts on historical contingency, such as whether U.S. institutions have upheld founding principles.^[72]^[49] W.W. Norton's student edition, released post-2018, includes chapter summaries and discussion questions to facilitate analysis of causal links between events like the Constitution's ratification in 1788 and modern governance challenges, influencing how instructors frame debates on constitutionalism versus reform.^[49] Critiques from conservative scholars have amplified discourse on ideological balance in historiography, arguing that Lepore's narrative exhibits a progressive tilt by minimizing media bias precedents and underemphasizing free-market contributions to prosperity, as seen in analyses faulting its portrayal of 20th-century economic policies.^[4]^[5] Such responses, including those decrying omissions in Native American history, have spurred counter-narratives emphasizing empirical data on demographic shifts and treaty violations over moral framing, fostering meta-debates on source selection amid institutional biases in academia.^[67]^[50] Overall, the book's influence lies in reigniting arguments over causal realism in history-writing—prioritizing verifiable political sequences while acknowledging failures in equality claims—though its mainstream acclaim has not quelled disputes on whether it privileges aspirational ideals at the expense of dissenting evidence, as evidenced by ongoing scholarly engagements through 2025.^[37]^[70]

Long-Term Sales and Cultural Reach

"These Truths" achieved New York Times bestseller status shortly after its September 2018 release, reflecting strong initial commercial success driven by its comprehensive narrative scope and timely release amid polarized political discourse.^[24] The book also attained international bestseller recognition, indicating appeal beyond U.S. markets to readers interested in foundational American principles.^[73] Sustained demand is evidenced by ongoing paperback editions and a 2023 inquiry edition designed for academic settings, featuring primary sources to facilitate teaching and analysis.^[42] In educational contexts, the volume has been integrated into university curricula, appearing on syllabi for U.S. history courses at institutions including the University of New Mexico-Valencia and Arizona State University, where it serves as a core text for examining post-1865 developments or broader national narratives.^[74] This adoption underscores its role in shaping pedagogical approaches to American history, emphasizing empirical examination of political equality, natural rights, and popular sovereignty as articulated by Jefferson.^[3] Culturally, the book's legacy persists through references in contemporary scholarship and media, with Lepore invoking its framework in a 2025 New York Times opinion piece to contextualize ongoing debates about the American story and institutional resilience against tyranny.^[75] Reviews have positioned it as a potential enduring reference, likely to influence future generations' understanding of the nation's ideological tensions and empirical trajectories, though its mainstream acclaim has drawn scrutiny for interpretive emphases from alternative perspectives.^[76] ^[52]

References

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We use cookies to enable, optimize and analyze the operation of our website. We may also share information collected by cookies with third parties, including ...
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Jill Lepore | Jill Lepore
She is the author of many award-winning books, including the international bestseller, These Truths: A History of the United States (2018). Her latest book ...
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Sep 25, 2018 · Few books have received as much instantaneous acclaim as Harvard historian Jill Lepore's These Truths: A History of the United States.
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These Truths Were Made for You and Me - Law & Liberty
Feb 5, 2020 · In These Truths Lepore denies that press bias is real, even as she demonstrates its historical equivalent. Lepore wants to conflate “Social ...
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These Truths | The Point Magazine
Sep 29, 2018 · These Truths has little to say about the role that custom, faith and emotion play in political life, nor does it provide much detail on the ...
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Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
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Mar 6, 2014 · Her work as an academic, a professor, and a magazine writer is to bring alive documents of the past; speaking with her is like encountering a living book.<|separator|>
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Nov 8, 2018 · Lepore has now written her most ambitious book to date: These Truths, a one-volume national political history of the US. In 2010, shocked at the ...
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Why did Jill Lepore write an epic of U.S. history? It's a long story
Oct 5, 2018 · ... published “These Truths: A History of the United States.” Still, she admitted, the selection process often kept her up late. Lepore spoke ...
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This book is a one-volume American history, focusing on the nation's 'truths' (political equality, natural rights, sovereignty) and tracing the nation's ...
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Lepore, Jill, 1966-. Published: New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2018]. Format: Book. Edition: First edition. Physical Desc: xx, 932 pages : illustrations ...
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In stock $6.99 next-day deliveryThis book is a one-volume history of the US, focusing on the nation's origins, the three core ideas, and whether the nation has proven or belied them.
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$$31.82 to $132.49 In stock Free deliveryLepore, Jill These Truths: A History of the United States, with Sources ... Publication date: 2023; Language: English; ISBN 10: 1324046422; ISBN 13 ...
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€96.02 In stock Rating 4.7 (2,399) Publication date, 1 July 2023. Edition, Inquiry ed. Language, ‎English. ISBN-10, 1324043814. ISBN-13, 978-1324043812. Item weight, ‎907 g. Dimensions, 18.03 x ...<|separator|>
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Sep 26, 2018 · She graduated with an M.A. in American Culture from the University of Michigan in 1990, and went on to Yale University, graduating with a Ph.D.<|separator|>
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In "These Truths," Jill Lepore looks at the history of America's ...
Sep 20, 2018 · In her new book "These Truths," Lepore takes on the task of tracking the nation's story starting with Christopher Columbus's voyage and ...<|separator|>
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Sep 20, 2018 · In her new book, "These Truths," Lepore illuminates the direct line between the country's polarized past and divided present.
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These Truths by Jill Lepore | Books Are Magic
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 ...
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The American Past: A History of Contradictions - The New York Times
Sep 14, 2018 · Jill Lepore's “These Truths” shows both the successes and failures that have made the country what it is today.
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[PDF] These Truths A History Of The United States
Comprehensive Scope: It covers a vast timeline, connecting early colonial times to modern day, helping readers see the continuity and change over time.<|separator|>
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These Truths - Museum of the American Revolution
In this excerpt from the introduction of These Truths, Lepore sets the stage for her exploration of the contradictions, the promises of “these truths,” and an ...
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These Truths review: Jill Lepore's Lincolnian American history
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'These Truths' Looks At America Through The Promises Of Its ... - NPR
Sep 18, 2018 · Jill Lepore is an extraordinarily gifted writer, and These Truths is nothing short of a masterpiece of American history.
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A Review of Jill Lepore's These Truths - OpenEdition Journals
Jun 30, 2020 · This essay takes the form of a narratological interpretation of These Truths. The book is an occasion to consider what national history is and what it is for.
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These Truths (2018) by historian Jill Lepore is a one-volume chronicle of American history that attempts to tell the United States' story from beginning to end.
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These Truths Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis - eNotes.com
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These Truths: Jill Lepore's Astonishing History of the U.S. | Mortal Coil
Apr 6, 2019 · Lepore breaks her brief down into four elements: the Idea, the People, the State, and the Machine. At first it's hard to guess where she's going ...
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On These Truths - Public Seminar
May 9, 2019 · Three historians have responded to Jill Lepore's These Truths: A History of the United States (New York: W.W. Norton, 2018).
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These Truths Themes - eNotes.com
The main themes in These Truths include equality, natural rights, and democracy. Equality: Lepore explores whether the United States, having been founded on ...
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These Truths Book Summary by Jill Lepore - Shortform
Rating 4.8 (61) In These Truths, Jill Lepore delves into key events and movements that continuously challenged and reshaped the meaning of citizenship and representation.
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A History of Truth in These Troubled Times - AAIHS
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These Truths - W.W. Norton
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A Conflicted Idea of America | The Russell Kirk Center
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How did America get here? Jill Lepore's new book offers clues in our ...
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Untitled
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Bill Gates reviews “These Truths: A History of the United States” by author Jill Lepore.
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Recent Domestic History | The Russell Kirk Center
Feb 24, 2019 · These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore. W. W. Norton, 2018. Hardcover, 960 pages, $40.
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Book Review: These Truths by Jill Lepore - The Florida Squeeze
Book Review: These Truths by Jill Lepore. January 1, 2019 · by ... By the way the two factual errors I highlighted were just two of the many I found and ...<|separator|>
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The Vanishing Indians of “These Truths”
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Are American Indians Part of a United States National History?
May 7, 2019 · Lepore offers a rich exploration of how the nation's qualms about citizenship have put a drag on the truth of equality, but American Indians are ...
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What Happened to Labor in Jill Lepore's America? - Midwest Socialist
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'These Truths' for History Majors - Inside Higher Ed
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Jill Lepore Latest Articles | The New Yorker
... Book of Ages,” a finalist for the National Book Award; “The Secret History of Wonder Woman”; the international best-seller “These Truths: A History of the ...
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[PDF] HIST 1120: United States History II - UNM-Valencia Campus
Jill Lepore's These Truths is published in two volumes and as both the textbook Inquiry Edition and a trade paperback edition. For this course, you need to make ...
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Review: Jill Lepore's American history essays in 'The Deadline'
Aug 24, 2023 · Her 2018 history of the United States, “These Truths,” will likely be read for many generations. ... It's a hefty tome, and the publisher hopes to ...