![]() ![]() Of course, generally speaking, people don’t live their lives as if they are part of a moral struggle or social experiment. Using a series of beautifully written vignettes, Lepore captures the nobility of the individuals and various movements that fought to narrow the gap between principles and everyday life. ![]() ![]() But this is not a one-sided carping over national sins. The hope that technological progress would enhance freedom was accompanied by terrible economic exploitation in eighteenth-century mines and factories. ![]() A nation born in liberty accepted the enslavement of millions. Throughout this journey from Columbus to the present, Lepore consistently stresses the often-anguishing contradictions between the ideals and realities of American life. Though chronologically structured, this is more of a civics lesson than a narrative history. These “truths,” as enunciated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, include political equality, natural (or creator-given) rights, and the ultimate sovereignty of the people. Harvard professor, New Yorker staff writer, and best-selling author Lepore ( Joe Gould’s Teeth, 2016) has written an ambitious and provocative attempt to interpret American history as an effort to fulfill and maintain certain fundamental principles. ![]()
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