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
branch century history late modern science
Modern political science started in the late nineteenth century as a branch of history.
My grandmother, who taught me how to cook, didn't know how to read.
assembly assigned lead less likely piece single smaller work
As with the factory, so with the office: in an assembly line, the smaller the piece of work assigned to any single individual, the less skill it requires, and the less likely the possibility that doing it well will lead to doing something more interesting and better paid.
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.
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.
break crack difficult history stir
Democracy is difficult and demanding. So is history. It can crack your voice; it can stir your soul; it can break your heart.
damning piece
Damning taxes is a piece of cake. It's defending them that's hard.
broke good history matched means rich
Americans like to get rich fast. That this means we go broke fast, too, is something that we have become very good at forgetting. Our ignorance of history is matched only by our unfailing optimism; it's actually part of our optimism.
among people
Americans, among the marryingest people in the world, are also the divorcingest.
employees moved offices periods throughout
Throughout the nineteen-seventies and eighties, especially during periods of recession, employees were moved from offices to cubicles.
hall room school wax
When I was a kid, my father would go to our school in the summer to sweep, mop, and wax the floors, room by room, hall by hall, week after week.
history trial
Clarence Darrow, America's best-known trial lawyer, was also one of American history's most skilled orators.
car case clutch trunk tucked
In the trunk of her car, my mother used to keep a collapsible easel, a clutch of brushes, a little wooden case stocked with tubes of paint, and, tucked into the spare-tire well, one of my father's old, tobacco-stained shirts, for a smock.
college companies dying employees graduates hire laid last left might students tech work worked
In the last years of the nineteen-eighties, I worked not at startups but at what might be called finish-downs. Tech companies that were dying would hire temps - college students and new graduates - to do what little was left of the work of the employees they'd laid off.