These Truths by Jill Lepore

Merits: Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ‘41 Professor of American History at Harvard University. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. She has authored several books, among them are The Secret History of Wonder Woman and Book of Ages. She was also a finalist for the National Book Award.

Material: Is your knowledge of American history limited to the date 1776 and the words ‘we the people’ with no context? Upgrade from pickup truck historian to citizen who's actually read a history book today! Jill offers a sobering account of the American past that, even as a single volume, is sweeping in scope. Explore the ideas of the great American experiment and whether or not events over the course of more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths or contradicted them. Has the promise of political equality and natural rights been fulfilled? With this book you can investigate these questions while learning about America’s expansive history along the way.

Grade: Black Jesus. This isn’t the kind of history book you studied in grade school. It isn’t curriculum controlled nationalist propaganda. It’s history in addition to reflection and bold confrontation. Confrontation with the realities of America’s legacy of internal contradiction. But don’t be afraid of leaving the comfort zone! Critical analysis is a vital component to maintaining the health of any democracy, a fact appropriately reaffirmed by the book’s leading quote from Abraham Lincoln in 1862, “We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”