First, this is exhaustively researched, brilliant, and eloquent, both (in the author’s words) as “a brief history” and “a civics primer.” Second, it will pair nicely with the 2026 celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, helping to inform our interpretations of that document, its historical context, and its continuing relevance. And …
Boy (or I should say “Girl”), Jill Lepore must have been thrilled when she came upon the previously unseen papers of Wonder Woman’s creator William Marston. The facts, both sensational and substantial, behind the Amazon superhero’s true origin story make her career an even more revealing case study in 20th-century feminist iconography. Before creating Wonder …
Book of Ages opens wide the eighteenth century through a narrow subject. Jane Franklin, sister to the famous Benjamin, comes to life through Lepore’s compassionate and humorous prose. This is the biography of a common and fascinating woman, but one whose life was not considered worthy of a historical biography in her own time. In Book of …
