These Truths A History of the United States

In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation, an urgently needed reckoning with the beauty and tragedy of American history



Americans are descended from slaves and slave owners, from conquerors and the conquered, from immigrants and from people who have fought to end immigration. "A nation born in contradiction will fight forever over the meaning of its history," Lepore writes. “Clear in purpose and elegant in design" (TLS), These Truths observes, "The past is an inheritance, a gift and a burden.” "It can’t be shirked. There’s nothing for it but to get to know it.