Join award-winning Harvard historian Jill Lepore for a magisterial account of the story of the United States, from Christopher Columbus to Donald J. Trump.
The first liberal democracy and the world’s most powerful empire, home to exhilarating technological progress and profound religious conviction, the United States defies every easy label and stereotype thrust upon it.
Who better to explain the rise of this great – and greatly troubled – nation than one of its master storytellers? In The Secret History of Wonder Woman, bestselling historian and New Yorker journalist Jill Lepore uncovered the missing link between Emeline Pankhurst and modern feminism in the unexpected origins of the eponymous superhero. Now, in celebration of the release of her landmark one-volume American history – the first from a female historian and the most ambitious in decades – Jill will take us on a grand tour of the United States, telling a three-hundred year tale of faith and hope, peril and prosperity, sovereignty and conquest.
In just one hour, we’ll witness the sweep of history on a grand scale; meet overlooked minority figures written out of other historical accounts; and explore whether Thomas Jefferson’s “self-evident” truths – political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people – still hold weight in the twenty-first century. And as Fake News and Alternative Facts continue to scandalise the Post-Truth age, Jill will show us how the tension between fact and fiction has always been woven into the tapestry of the American story.
Discount code available to HCUK members - please contact Verity at membership@hcuk.org for more information