Jill Lepore: Revisiting American History

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a journalist at The New Yorker. She specialises in American history, specifically early American history and undocumented history. Two themes which are the focus of her new book ‘These Truths’. In her book, Lepore takes a closer look at Thomas Jeffersons “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Are these truths, however, self-evident for everyone? In a polarised and nationalistic America, can every race, every gender every nationality enjoy the same truths and freedoms?

During our interview with Lepore we will focus on history as a subject and the implications it has had for society today. How do politicians like Donald Trump use history? How has the way we remember history affected minorities? Apart from this, the questions of whether these truths are self-evident and how the lack of these truths has changed America will be explored extensively during the session.