Jill Lepore
Jill Lepore
Jill Leporeis an American historian. She is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University. and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American history, law, literature, and politics...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
CountryUnited States of America
leads sentiments stirring voters
A problem with a president who leads by stirring the moral sentiments of voters is that he has got to keep stirring them.
original series shows television time
'Doctor Who' is the most original science-fiction television series ever made. It is also one of the longest-running television shows of all time.
presidents
Few American presidents have been unhappier or lonelier in office than Woodrow Wilson.
roots century made
Nineteenth-century grass-roots populism made twentieth-century progressivism possible.
eaten history saved written
History's written from what can be found; what isn't saved is lost, sunken and rotted, eaten by earth.
assumed assumption children historians mortality people proved since
Historians once assumed that when childhood mortality was high, people must not have loved their children very much; it would have been too painful. Research has since proved that assumption wrong.
ancient crops medieval paid taxing trade
In the ancient world, taxes were paid in kind: landowners paid in crops or livestock; the landless paid with their labor. Taxing trade made medieval monarchs rich and funded the early-modern state.
generations mouths down-and
Folklore used to be passed by word of mouth, from one generation to the next; thats what makes it folklore, as opposed to, say, history, which is written down and stored in an archive.
branch century history late modern science
Modern political science started in the late nineteenth century as a branch of history.
appearing began computers cords desktop electrical floor
Desktop computers - boxes inside boxes - began appearing in those cubicles in the mid-eighties, electrical cords curling on the floor like so many ropes.
academic accepting conduct federal government inquiry money national places research
Accepting money from the federal government to conduct research places academic inquiry in the service of national interests.
harbor nations offers olympics parade peace relief strife
The Olympics is an imperfect interregnum, the parade of nations a fantasy about a peace never won. It offers little relief from strife and no harbor from terror.
saved
Disrupt, and you will be saved.
civilized pay society wealthy
Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, for modernity, and for prosperity. The wealthy pay more because they have benefitted more.