These Truths
A History of the United States
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These Truths
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Narrated by:
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Jill Lepore
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By:
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Jill Lepore
About this listen
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, "[O]n 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.
©2018 Jill Lepore (P)2018 Recorded BooksWhat listeners say about These Truths
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-03-2019
No better time than now.
We so often forget, or more likely don’t know our history. This book sheds real light on just how we have arrived at our current political destination.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Nicholas Gruen
- 21-03-2020
Interesting content but precious delivery
This book served the purpose I bought it for – I wanted a long book of interest but not high arousal that I could listen to trying to drift off during insomnia.
There are lots of interesting facts related, but I found the writing and the delivery (also by the author) to have a precious tone that was offputting. I can't quite put my finger on the problem, but it has a kind of self-consciousness about it. It's not far from popular American exceptionalism, but the author tries to moderate this with a kind of tragic tone. It's a good try, but I found it a little grating – it's a kind of faux profundity.
I like the idea of authors reading their books. This author does a good job. But for me there's a problem. I want the volume right down but I still want to be able to hear the words which I can in lots of other audible books. This doesn't happen in this recording. If you turn the volume down you miss a lot of words.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bernie
- 18-03-2019
There is a reason for having specialist narrators
The content was fine but I wish Jill hadn’t done the narration herself.
The reading was too fast and uneven. Was struggling to stay with it but when I heard the sound of pages turning I just couldn’t listen anymore.
Was like being back in school with members of class taking turns to read a textbook.
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1 person found this helpful