Publisher's Weekly Review
"I wanted to try to explain how history works, and how it's different from politics," states Harvard history professor Lepore (The Mansion of Happiness), introducing her collection of essays, almost all previously published in the New Yorker. History involves making an argument by telling a story "accountable to evidence," which she marshals ably in discussing personalities real and fictional, from Benjamin Franklin to Charlie Chan. Her argument that Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride" was an abolitionist "call to arms," subsequently "juvenilized" for schoolrooms, is as pointed as a legal brief. Varying her tone-brisk when detailing changes in how Americans cast their votes, poignant when recounting Edgar Allan Poe's career-Lepore also provides drollery. Nixon's attempt to give a concise and, he hoped, memorable inaugural address "led him to say things briefly but didn't save him from saying them badly." Ranging from colonial times to the present, the essays are liberally sprinkled with fascinating facts-etymologies of "ballot" and "booze," or that Davy Crockett was the first presidential candidate to write a campaign autobiography. Even the footnotes contain buried treasures; history buffs and general readers alike will savor this collection. Agent: Tina Bennett, William Morris Endeavor. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
If the definition of a good book is one that makes a reader think, then Lapore has written a good book. If the definition of a very good book is one that makes a reader question prevailing thought, then Lapore has written a very good book indeed. Her collection of essays, all but one previously published in the New Yorker, places the stories Americans tell about America under a microscope, from the conflicting stories of Jamestown to the ubiquitous presidential campaign biography, from Poor Richard's Almanac to the surprising findings she gingerly, patiently, often humorously coaxes out of inquiries into subjects that should be but are too seldom investigated. The stories behind stories are more revelatory than the so-called facts they are ostensibly built upon. And while to have read the U.S. Constitution is one thing, to understand what it says is an altogether different matter, since its meaning seems to shift with the times and the reader's intent. This book ought to be intentional reading for every American history wonk.--Chavez, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," says a character in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. As New Yorker contributor Lepore (American History/Harvard Univ.; The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death, 2012, etc.) sees it, American historians have been doing just that since the dawn of the republic. Tackling a wide variety of subjects--e.g., the Founding Fathers, Charles Dickens, Clarence Darrow, Charlie Chan, voting regulations, the decline of inaugural speeches--the author proves to be a funny, slightly punky literary critic, reading between the lines of American history. She takes historians to task for embellishing myths, citing the way John Smith's long-discredited history of Jamestown is still used to support contrasting views of colonial life. She calls out Nathaniel Philbrick, in his 2006 book on the Mayflower, for leaning uncritically on the suspiciously self-centered account of the militia captain Benjamin Church. She rereads original documents and finds that Benjamin Franklin's advice in Poor Richard's Almanack was made mostly in jest. Lepore also takes a fresh look at the U.S. Constitution, explaining why everyone debates original intent: "A great deal of what many Americans hold dear is nowhere inked on those four pages of parchment, nor in any of the twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution." She examines how the legend of George Washington began, with his own writings brutally edited by Jared Sparks to dress the first president in full patriotic trappings. Most interestingly, Lepore finds that Longfellow's 1861 "Paul Revere's Ride" is both a subtle call to overthrow slavery and "a fugitive slave narrative." The author weighs her opinions throughout with research and original insight; the same goes for her essay on Edgar Allen Poe, although it does have a bit of a mean streak. As smart, lively and assured as modern debunkery gets.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
This is not a history of America but rather an assessment of how history has been told by historians, literary figures, profit- and vote-seeking biographers, and other writers. In 20 essays previously published in The New Yorker, Lepore (history, Harvard Univ.; The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death) makes the case that American history has always been closely bound up with literature. The essays concern some varied American works motivated by nationalism, ego, politics, finances, sentimentality, social and religious movements, and outright dishonesty, from Capt. John Smith's memoir about Jamestown, to the Constitution, Poor Richard's Almanac, and works by Longfellow, Dickens, and Earl Derr Biggers, who created Charlie Chan. Lepore looks at the first Webster's Dictionary of the American Language, notes that Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride" was intended to fuel abolitionism, and comments that most modern inaugural addresses pander to popular emotion rather than offer well-reasoned argument. -VERDICT In an engaging and entertaining style, Lepore questions and exposes the political motives underlying commonly accepted versions of history. Each enlightening essay reveals that what most of us think of as history is often a tangle of prejudice, speculation, and imagination. An enjoyable and thought-provoking read for history buffs at all levels and for anyone seeking to understand how history is written.-Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
