The Story of America is a collection of twenty essays by Harvard lecturer and The New Yorker writer, Jill Lepore. Lepore, who specializes in history has used her book to turn a keen eye on different claims of history, politics, and literature. According to the author, American history should be viewed as a story-one with a plot. Each of the essays she has written focuses on a specific text. In many of her arguments, Lepore debunks many aspects of history, with respect to facts.
For instance, the bogus claim of John Smith founding Jamestown, Va., debunking the delirious admiration for Benjamin Franklin and the myth of his kind and philosophic nature. Lepore also strips the idiotic reputation of astound writer, Thomas Paine, according to Lepore, Paine was a man who walked over all the world’s religions. Lepore also provides different scenarios of history that follow a different path. For instance, she asks what would have happened, if John Adams had taken his wife’s advice and included women in politics and if the first draft of the Declaration of Independence which called for the end of slavery had triumphed.
According to Lepore, these different narratives present a different aspect of history. Not all narratives are true or useful but prove that history is always a dialogue between the past and the present. The way we interpret our present determines how we understand or misunderstand our past. The results of these revelations are intelligent and readable, her subjects present new ideas about the social, political, and economic phases of American history.
