#12 Jill Lepore, who are America’s true national heroes?
We’re speaking with Jill Lepore, Professor of American History at Harvard University. In addition to this position, she also writes for The New Yorker and The New York Times on topics relating to history, law, literature and politics. Lepore has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, to name a few. She has been honored with numerous awards and distinctions although – or maybe because – she questions many aspects of America’s national history. She challenges national heroes and legends by focusing on missing evidence in historical records. Against this backdrop, she has written a 1,200-page-long opus, adding new pages to U.S. history: “These Truths: A History of the United States,” or as the German version is called, “Diese Wahrheiten: Eine Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika.”