W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
The United States was founded on a set of “self-evident” truths: political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But how well has the nation lived up to these founding ideals? In an absorbing, character-driven narrative that is a dramatic expansion of the best-selling single-volume history, These Truths Inquiry Edition, engages this urgent question and helps students develop civic skills relevant to their lives far beyond the course.
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The absorbing, character-driven narrative includes institutions like Congress and the Supreme Court and also those agitating for change at the margins—for students to see history as a toolkit for asking critical questions and making change in their communities.
In brief, chronologically presented chapters, These Truths helps students think critically about how we’ve arrived at our present moment. Chapters begin with a Guiding Question to surface a central theme or tension and (in the versions with sources) conclude with Weighing the Evidence clusters of primary sources on a particular theme.
An assignable ebook that promotes student accountability and improves preparation. Embedded Before you Read videos give students a helpful recap of the key developments from the previous chapter, setting them up thematically and conceptually to engage with the next reading.
Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University, where she teaches classes in evidence, historical methods, the humanities, and American political history. Her one-semester undergraduate course on the history of the United States features weekly debates in which students use primary sources to argue over competing historical interpretations of turning points in American history. She is the author of numerous books and also a staff writer at The New Yorker, host of the podcast The Last Archive, and was named the winner of the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought in 2021.
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Image Credits: Dari Pillsbury; (Lepore Photo)
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