The Story of America: Essays on Origins, (Paperback)

<p><b>From Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore, a history of American origin stories</b></p><p><br>In <i>The Story of America</i>, Harvard historian and <i>New Yorker</i> 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. </p><p>Part civics primer, part cultural history, <i>The Story of America</i> 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 <i>Way to Wealth</i>, Thomas Paine's <i>Common Sense</i>, "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. </p><p>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.</p>

• The Story of America: Essays on Origins, (Paperback)
• Author: Associate Professor of History and American Studies Jill Lepore
• ISBN: 9780691293714
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 2026-09-15
• Page Count: 432