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    These Truths: A History of the United States
    These Truths: A History of the United States
    These Truths: A History of the United States
    Audiobook29 hours

    These Truths: A History of the United States

    Written by Jill Lepore

    Narrated by Jill Lepore

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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. The American experiment rests on three ideas?"these truths," Jefferson called them?political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. And it rests, too, "on a dedication to inquiry, fearless and unflinching," writes Jill Lepore in a groundbreaking investigation into the American past that places truth itself at the center of the nation's history. In riveting prose, These Truths tells the story of America, beginning in 1492, to ask whether the course of events has proven the nation's founding truths, or belied them. "A nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history," Lepore writes, finding meaning in those very contradictions as she weaves American history into a majestic tapestry of faith and hope, of peril and prosperity, of technological progress and moral anguish. A spellbinding chronicle filled with arresting sketches of Americans from John Winthrop and Frederick Douglass to Pauli Murray and Phyllis Schlafly, These Truths offers an authoritative new history of a great, and greatly troubled, nation.

    Editor's Note

    Smart summer read…

    Take a trip back in history this summer with Harvard professor Jill Lepore. Her sweeping — and engrossing — story of America covers all the drama from the country’s revolutionary birth to today’s deep divisions. Who needs a fluffy beach read when Lepore makes history this exciting?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 18, 2018
    ISBN9781980010876
    These Truths: A History of the United States
    Author

    Jill Lepore

    Jill Lepore is a professor of American history at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her books include Book of Ages, a finalist for the National Book Award; New York Burning, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; The Name of War, winner of the Bancroft Prize; and The Mansion of Happiness, which was short-listed for the 2013 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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    Reviews for These Truths

    4.5/5

    266 ratings31 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The book itself is brilliant, one of the most thought-provoking histories I’ve read in years. Five stars for content. Unfortunately Jill Lepore, who reads her own book, is a terrible narrator. “Normal” passages are read in a soft, monotonous voice; direct quotations are shouted. Had to fiddle constantly with the volume control. One star for delivery. But the text itself really is a wonderful piece of work.

      6 people found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Couldn’t finish it. The narration was too bad. Read it instead, needs a professional narrator. The author is not up to it.

      4 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Intelligent and thought provoking book on the political history of the US. Extremely thorough and a pleasure to listen to

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      an incredible approach to our history, weaving legal and cultural themes throughout our history going back to 1492, and threaded into our contemporary history, showing why we have "done things" not just from whim or basic cruelty, but from what was thought to be the legal and right way according the then current foundations of morality and law.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      This too much of political pamflet and not enough of history. The parts of history that I know very well (since the WWI) have too many inaccuracies and too frequently selection are clearly made to fit preconceived view rather than to show multiple perspectives. Blaming computers for most of the ills of today reminds one of Industrial Revolution time and is obviously misguided. Polling as the end of electoral democracy is equally overstated.
    • 5/5
      Author's voice a bit soft. Includes important historical facts about the quest for constitutional equality which nervous legislatures today seek to withhold from schoolchildren.
    • 3/5
      Loved the book and its focus on slavery and racial discrimination. Gave it only 3 stars because of the narration, Lepore is a fantastic writer yet a terrible narrator. I recommend reading the book in silence.
    • 5/5
      History from a point of view that makes sense.
    • 5/5
      Great book, even better audiobook. Super informative and very well-paced.
    • 4/5
      I stopped listening at chapter 4, she talks too fast, and every time she quotes kinda yells and tries to imitate a man’s voice (?) Not sure what she’s doing there but it’s quite annoying, however I will keep on with the text version, because there’s some good content.
    • 1/5
      A very mediocre historical overview culminated with an overt political attack from the depths of bias and untruth. Do not bother with this or anything by this author if you are interested in objective truth.
    • 5/5
      Lepore‘s history book isn‘t comprehensive (no Lewis and Clark), but what‘s not there, you won‘t miss. What IS there (a history of polling and the rise of political consultants, the nation's decades-long quest for universal healthcare, and the rise of the far right, for example) will force a long reading list of future follow-ups. Thankfully, it‘s well-annotated. Haven‘t had a history course since college or high school? You're you going to be surprised by what you think you remember and by what you were never taught. Stirringly written. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Essential.
    • 4/5
      Identifying the Formative Themes of Our History

      Jill Lepore, the award-winning Harvard professor of history, has taken on a daunting task: writing a one-volume history of the U.S. And, happy to report, she has done an impressive job, producing a volume that thoughtful Americans should read.

      However, before you do, you should be aware that, given its relative compactness, it is by no means a comprehensive history in the sense of a textbook, as Lepore herself points out. Rather, her history follows threads originating in Colonial America and the formulation of the United States Constitution, from the beginning to present day. She illustrates how these threads remain with us and how they have effected and are affected by politics, law, societal behavior, and technology.

      These threads are the truths referenced in the title, the truths enumerated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. As a refresher, the Declaration opens: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

      Our American history abounds with painful moments and terrible ironies, none more so than “all men are created equal.” From early settlement times, as Lepore shows, this wasn’t even an ideal, that is, until Colonial times and the advent of separation from England. Then it became a point in the Declaration. Of course, reality was that while we might profess the ideal of equality, not everybody was treated equally, not slaves, and not women. This segregation of those equal and those not quite so made it into the Constitution, where African-Americans counted for three-fifths of a white man and women were never mentioned or considered. The idea of equality became the most powerful and wrenching thread in our entire history. It broke the nation apart in the 1860s, it resulted in repressive Jim Crow laws straight through the 1960s, and it continues to divide us, maybe even more so in present time. If Lepore’s history possesses any one overriding strength, any reason for you to read it right now, then it is this thread, this destructive conflict between equal and unequal. To understand it fully, to appreciate what all the contention and discontent today is about, you really have to see how it unfolded and effected every aspect of American life.

      Technology, another thread, plays an important role in modern U.S. life, what with robotics, communications, and the eradication and transformation of so many industries, particularly how we get our information and form our ideas. Lepore does a good job of illustrating technologies impact in modern times, but also throughout our history, in olden times when the printing press, the railroad, the telegraph , and radio were transformative technologies. Too, she explains how political through as evolved from the first day of the Republic to the present. Partisanship has been a bane through out our history; we even came to blows because of it. Today, it seems we’re ready again to battle in the aisles of Congress and on our main streets. Of particular interest for those wishing to better understand our present political situation, you’ll do no better than Chapter 13, A World of Knowledge.

      How you regard Lepore’s casting of certain issues, like women’s rights, white supremacy, racism, corporatism, identity politics, and a range of other subjects will, to the point, depend on your political identity. It’s been that way in the past and it remains so now. And on that topic, let’s bring this recommendation to an end with a sample drawn from the final pages on the very idea of race and identity politics.

      “Identity politics, by other names, goes all the way back to the founding of the Republic. The Constitution, which, for purposes of representation, counted some Americans as worth three-fifths of other Americans, rested on the politics of identity: white supremacy. ‘This Government was made by our fathers on the white basis,’ Stephen Douglas had said, debating Abraham Lincoln. ‘It was made by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever.’ Lincoln, of course, disagreed.”

      Why not turn off the cable bloviators, look away from your social networks, and devote several hours to learning a bit more about your country and how we turned out we have by reading These Truths at the start of the new year.
    • 5/5
      Writing a history of the United States is a little like a mosaic puzzle my son has: you can assemble the pieces to make multiple pictures, though not all arrangements make sense. In the case of the single volume history, you also have a frame that's too small for all the pieces. The author has to choose what to select and highlight, and this inevitably means some aspects are glossed over.

      In These Truths, Jill Lepore has stuck to the traditional chronological format, but her organizing principle is around several recurring themes. The overarching concept is of the development of what it means to be an American. This is a boldly liberal book--and by that I do not mean slavishly devoted to a particular type of politics, but to confronting the reality of our history, even when it is uncomfortable. From day one, racism and its companion, slavery, were baked into our politics and our institutions. It was woven into the structure of our elected government, as the South gained additional political power from black people who could not elect those who represented them, and those Southern politicians were able to block legislation. Liberals and progressives are not excused either--they were routinely willing to throw black people and their rights under the bus. While Lepore doesn't make a point of saying "the more things change, the more they stay the same," she does often highlight issues that have contemporary parallels: complaints about liberals overrunning the universities; religious awakenings; the belief that government is the road to new slavery.

      There are gaps; notably, military history gets almost no mention at all. But at this length, it's difficult to argue with what's left out. She does devote more time to a few topics--such as the birth of political analysis and polling--that another writer might have chosen to leave out, but it is very much relevant to contemporary politics.

      Lepore is a terrific writer--this is a popular history in the best sense. It is meant to be read and enjoyed. I don't know if this is going to supplant Howard Zinn as a go-to single volume history; only time will tell. But it's very much worth a reading today.
    • 4/5
      These Truths , a history of the United States of America by Jill LePore, starts with Columbus‘s arrival and ends with Trump being elected. This is a big picture overview of US History that also attempts to include histories ignored or downplayed by some past historians/histories (i.e. that of women, people of color). A single volume project this ambitious does leave out, or not cover as deeply, some incidents or ideology. So, of course, different readers are going to say or have said that LePore should have included this or that. That's understandable. My copy was the first edition in paperback, which was revised from the original hardcover edition. This was to correct errors, and also --according to LePore-- it added or deleted some historical aspects.
    • 5/5
      This is a book about the history of the United States which I've had on my shelf for awhile but I never felt any urgency to read. I mean, the history of the US -- didn't I already learn all this? But this is not the history I learned ages ago and it definitely was an eye opener about why we are where we are today. Yes, it's long, and yes, some of the stories you probably have already heard, but I guarantee that if you read this book, you'll find some surprises that will shock you. The length -- over 900 pages -- might feel intimidating but her writing style is easy and entertaining and it's definitely well worth the read.
    • 5/5
      For a British reader who only knew about key moments of American history, mainly from film or fiction, this was an excellent and easily readable overview of the colonisation of the thirteen original states, creation of the United States and the subsequent political history up to 2018 (although the last chapter feels less like history than good journalism).Although a big book, with nearly 800 pages of text plus over 100 pages of notes and index, it is well structured and organised to describe the development of the US political system, especially the initial political “fudge” of slavery, the consequences of this fudge as the number of states increased, civil war (covered necessarily briefly in order to maintain momentum), the failure of reconstruction with the introduction of Jim Crow laws to impose segregation and the slow fight for racial and sexual equality. Although discussed, I felt that there should have been more about native Americans, but this lack may reflect American political history.Overarching themes such as the waxing and waning of power between the presidency, Senate/House of Representatives and the Judiciary, and the rise and fall of the power of the press are skilfully interwoven. I found the importance of the Constitution and the referencing of specific “landmark” legal cases and their ongoing political ramifications very interesting (the UK doesn’t have a written constitution).Highly recommended in providing an understanding of how the United States of America has arrived at where it is today and its complex myths.
    • 5/5
      Incredible!
    • 4/5
      In "These Truths," historian Jill Lapore does an admirable job of writing a thoughtful and balanced history of the United States from the perspective of its founding ideas and ideals. She demonstrates the flaws and failures, the betrayals and reversals. She also shows the heroic efforts to be true to those ideals, to make them universal for all citizens. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly except...

      Throughout the book there are glaring factual errors one would not expect from an historian and a major press. There is no point in rehearsing the many factual errors. Amazon review, S. J. Snyder, does a great job of that. The impact is to devalue the work, to make the analysis and conclusions suspect, when that is the book's strength.

      I wish I could give it give stars and then 1 star for fact-checking. It still recommend that any thinking American read it as I hope that the second edition fixes the errors.
    • 5/5
      I was surprised and happy to read a newly written history of the United States. Her perspective is surprisingly contemporary yet does a good job telling the story of the fifties on. She details little things like Nixon’s checkers speech at the same time looking at history through the Lens of changes of human equality. I would recommend the book to any contemporary American.
    • 3/5
      Lepore wrote a single volume United States history. As one might expect, it is a chunkster. It's not comprehensive. It seems to focus more on United States political history than on the people themselves. While she succeeds in neutrality in some things, her own political leanings sneak into the narrative in other places. She does, however, offer different perspectives on some incidents. My disappointment comes from the political focus. I would enjoy more on the nation's expansion and peopling. I felt the Colonial Period also received less treatment than deserved. Many people loved this far more than I did, but with its uneven coverage of American history, I cannot rate it higher.
    • 4/5
      Lepore's history of the U.S. has several foci, especially the stain of slavery and the growth of political institutions such as consultants and polling. To explore the growth of populism, the effects of slavery and the legacy of racism, Lepore gives short shrift to a lot of what us usually taught as American history: she looks at the theft of property from Spain but passes over Lewis and Clark, barely mentions genocide of native Americans, and more. But this book can be considered as a necessary, very readable exploration of the history of some of the most divisive issues in contemporary America.
    • 4/5
      Unlike most history books, the content was very readable and interesting. However Lepore's book is very long ( over 950 pages). The timeline of the book starts with Christopher Columbus and finishes at the Trump presidency. Again unlike most history books, this is not a whitewash of the warts, failures,
      miscarriages and atrocities that occurred since 1492. An interesting section of the book deals with the American Revolution. Much of the country did not wish to split from England. And despite all the talk about equality by many of our nation's founders, many (Jefferson, Washington and Madison) owned slaves and were still in favor of slavery.

      Due to the length of the book, I did skip around and read about historical periods that interested me – – the American Revolution, World War II, 1960s and post-9/11.
    • 4/5
      Lepore is valiant in her attempt to tell the history of the US, with emphasis on the legacy of slavery in our country's founding, and a realization of how business interests influence politics. It is a very good book. I especially enjoyed the first part, as it's focus on slavery really made me think about the country's founding differently. I had known that slavery was part of the country's history, of course, but she puts it together front and center. The main problem I have with this book is that she covers so much material in such a short span of time, that some points are over simplified or glossed over. (For example, she discussed Billy Graham's conservative leanings, but not his insistence on racial integration. ) The last part of the book felt to me like a piling together of events and facts in rapid succession, rather than thought out analysis. Of course, if she followed my advise, this would be 10 volumes and I would still be reading! So glad that I read this and I plan to supplement with some books that go in more depth. For example, I have to read more about Eisenhower, because I hadn't realized before that he grew up Mennonite. That is so intriguing. Some interesting parts:Frederick Douglass on the Dred Scott decision: "You may close your Supreme Court against the black man's cry for justice, but you cannot, thank God, close against him the ear of a sympthising world, nor shut up the Court of Heaven. ....Slavery lives in this country not because of any paper Constitution, but in the moral blindness of the American people."Clarence Darrow: "Gentlemen, the world is dark. But it is not hopeless. "Lepore talking about political divisions between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the global war on terror: "They fought by tooth and nail and by hook and by crook and they believed they were fighting for the meaning of America, but really, they were fighting for raw political power."And Lepore, on the internet: "But online, where everyone was, in the end, utterly alone, it had become terribly difficult to know much of anything with any certainty, except how to like and be liked, and especially, how to hate and be hated."
    • 5/5
      I’ve been reading this tome since January as part of the group read and the last part which dealt with recent history and right up to the 2016 election was the most riveting, probably because of its presence in our daily lives and the idea that our democracy may be unilaterally damaged by the unfit President that was elected. Lepore went to great lengths to draw lines between historical instances of threats to our democracy and what’s happening today and the biggest takeaway for me was that our country has dealt with issues of incredible tyranny in the past and gone on to mend the fissures and reinvigorate our democracy and we will be able to do it again when this period is over."A nation born in revolution will forever struggle against chaos. A nation founded on universal rights will wrestle against the forces of particularism. A nation that toppled a hierarchy of birth only to erect a hierarchy of wealth will never know tranquility. A nation of immigrants cannot close its borders. And a nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history.”There are many instances throughout the book where I realized there were times in our history where I was truly embarrassed and ashamed of our country. This took me by surprise. I won’t forget the names of Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker, who founded Campaigns Inc. in 1933 and are responsible for the defeat of health insurance for all and began the kind of dirty, scheming politics that have become a way of life for our elections today. Money, money, money has led to where we’re stuck and they can claim a large share of the blame/credit depending on your point of view. The role of technology, public opinion and polling has not really been beneficial to our democracy in many, many ways. So much to learn and this book goes a long way toward informing those of us who appreciate being educated. Very highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Jill LePore's history of the United States is a tour du force and mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand what is happening in this country today. She pulls no punches and skewers both Democrats and Republicans as well as political consultants, pollsters and anyone and everyone connected to the Internet. It has taken me several months to read this book, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's just great.
    • 5/5
      These Truths is a comprehensive history of the United States from a political perspective, focused largely on who was in power and how they shaped the nation. But rather than idolizing these figures, Jill Lepore shows the far-reaching and sometimes unintended consequences of their actions. The essential questions Lepore aims to answer are these:Can a political society really be governed by reflection and election, by reason and truth, rather than by accident and violence, by prejudice and deceit? Is there any arrangement of government—any constitution—by which it’s possible for a people to rule themselves, justly and fairly, and as equals, through the exercise of judgment and care? Or are their efforts, no matter their constitutions, fated to be corrupted, their judgment muddled by demagoguery, their reason abandoned for fury?The book is organized in four parts covering major time periods: 1492-1799, 1800-1865, 1866-1945, and 1946-2016. While each part covers the major events that make up any American history textbook, where Lepore really shines is in making connections that put these events in greater context. She also candidly describes the flaws, mistakes, and sometimes corruption of the country’s leaders and systems of government, again providing a broader and more balanced view.I came to These Truths in a time of despair for the future of the United States. The first three parts helped me understand that this country has always had its issues, from errors, omissions and incompetence to bigotry and hatred, in some respects not much different from today. But Part Four was more difficult to read, because Lepore’s analysis of “how we got here” during my lifetime was jarring, especially to the extent I was a participant. But that very discomfort is what makes this book required reading.
    • 4/5
      Lepore’s political history focuses on who was allowed to be part of the process of politics over the years, and on the epistemology of political knowledge as mediated by various sources. Benjamin Franklin's sister, who was never allowed to do the things her brother became famous for, shows up early on to set the tone. I thought making Phyllis Schlafly one of the major figures to emphasize how women’s activism has long been an important political force was a useful choice. I was less impressed by her recent history; if you’re going to say that many of Trump’s supporters aren’t racist (especially after a history structured by slavery and racism), you need to take a moment to define that.
    • 3/5
      I read this as a review of American history, not expecting to learn much. And I didn't. There is little insight, and its coverage of recent events is very trendy (with far too much on the 2016 election). Yet i appreciated the review, and the choice of topics for focus. The writing is usually decent, with the exception of some horrendous similes.