Harvard professor Jill Lepore on her new book, “These Truths: A History of the United States”
Finding topics to write about has never been a problem for Jill Lepore. The Harvard historian’s fascination with everything from Wonder Woman and Frankenstein to matters of life and death has fueled her New Yorker essays and nonfiction for years. But when your project is a single volume covering a nation’s centuries-long past, not every fascinating topic is going to make the cut. The Bancroft Prize winner and David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History said that adhering to a strict timeline and specific themes helped her narrow her subject matter for the just-published “These Truths: A History of the United States.” Still, she admitted, the selection process often kept her up late. Lepore spoke with the Gazette about our shared past, her central argument, Supreme Court fan mail, and more. Q&A Jill Lepore GAZETTE: With this kind of sweeping project, how did you decide what to leave out? LEPORE: There’s a lot of...