In "The Story of America," Harvard historian and "New Yorker"
staff writer Jill Lepore investigates American origin stories--from
John Smith's account of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to Barack
Obama's 2009 inaugural address--to show how American democracy is
bound up with the history of print. Over the centuries, Americans
have read and written their way into a political culture of ink and
type.
Part civics primer, part cultural history, "The Story of
America" excavates the origins of everything from the paper ballot
and the Constitution to the I.O.U. and the dictionary. Along the
way it presents fresh readings of Benjamin Franklin's "Way to
Wealth," Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," "The Raven" by Edgar Allan
Poe, and "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, as
well as histories of lesser-known genres, including biographies of
presidents, novels of immigrants, and accounts of the
Depression.
From past to present, Lepore argues, Americans have wrestled
with the idea of democracy by telling stories. In this thoughtful
and provocative book, Lepore offers at once a history of origin
stories and a meditation on storytelling itself.
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