Historian Jill Lepore Brings THESE TRUTHS to Writers In the Loft, Today

On Wednesday, October 3, award-winning historian and writer Jill Lepore returns to The Music Hall Loft to talk about her new nonfiction book, THESE TRUTHS. A magisterial account of the origins and rise of our divided nation, it is heralded as the most ambitious one-volume chronicle of American history in decades.

The 7pm event includes an author presentation and moderated Q+A, plus a book signing and meet-and-greet. It will be held at The Music Hall Loft at 131 Congress Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"Back by popular demand, Jill Lepore is returning to The Music Hall! This time she will share her illuminating insights that reveal how our present is in our past as a nation and provides much needed context to today's hot button issues," said Patricia Lynch, The Music Hall's executive producer and the evening's moderator. "We're thrilled to welcome back this preeminent historian for what is sure to be a riveting discussion of the ideals and the truths that have shaped our nation."

ABOUT THE BOOK

The American experiment rests on three ideas-"these truths," Jefferson called them-political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. And it rests, too, "on a dedication to inquiry, fearless and unflinching," writes Jill Lepore in a groundbreaking investigation into the American past that places truth itself at the center of the nation's history.

In riveting prose, THESE TRUTHS tells the story of America, beginning in 1492, to ask whether the course of events has proven the nation's founding truths, or belied them. "A nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history," Lepore writes. She finds meaning in those very contradictions as she weaves American history into a majestic tapestry of faith and hope, of peril and prosperity, of technological progress and moral anguish. A spellbinding chronicle filled with arresting sketches of Americans from John Winthrop and Frederick Douglass to Pauli Murray and Phyllis Schlafly, THESE TRUTHS offers an authoritative new history of a great, and greatly troubled, nation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. A prize-winning professor, she teaches classes in evidence, historical methods, humanistic inquiry, and American history. Much of her scholarship explores absences and asymmetries in the historical record, with a particular emphasis on the histories and technologies of evidence and of privacy. As a wide-ranging and prolific essayist, Lepore writes about American history, law, literature, and politics. She is the author of many award-winning books, including national bestseller The Secret History of Wonder Woman, and Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin.

TICKETS
The ticket package for Writers in the Loft: Jill Lepore with These Truths on Wednesday, October 3, at 7pm, is $54. In addition to a reserved seat, the package includes a copy of THESE TRUTHS: A History of the United States ($39.95, hardcover), a bar beverage, author presentation, Q+A, and book signing meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or in person at the B2W Box Office at the Historic Theater, 28 Chestnut Street.

About Writers in the Loft

Akin to The Music Hall's anchor literary series, Writers on a New England Stage, Writers in the Loft features bestselling authors in a smaller, more intimate space. The series brings audiences today's top authors, the best of fiction and nonfiction, and award-winners across categories. The evening package includes a reserved seat and bar beverage, Q+A, a copy of the book, and a meet-and-greet book signing with the featured writer.

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