These Truths, by Jill Lepore - Part Four - April

These Truths: A History of the United States, by Jill Lepore

Each month, January - April, we will read one section. This thread is a chance to talk about lots of things: what you knew, what you learned, what surprised you, the pictures, the people, the places....

I am not sure spoilers are needed, but it would be nice to start off your comments with a page number or a year, so others can look up what you are talking about.

The Breakdown of Sections...

January--Part One, The Idea, pages 1-149 (1492-1799)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/301417#6718681

February--Part Two, The People, pages 153-310 (1800-1865)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/303118

March--Part Three, The State, pages 311-520 (1866-1945)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/304319#6781171

April--Part Four, The Machine, pages 521-789 (1946-2016)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/305408#

Literary Arts' podcast of Jill Lepore's visit can be found on iTunes for free. You can also follow the link from here:

https://literary-arts.org/archives/

and then click on the green highlighted line in the main paragraph: "Click here to visit The Archive Project on iTunes.

I have really appreciated everyone's insights and comments, both celebrating and crying over the history of the US. I hope you are all enjoying this read as much as I am. Homestretch here guys!! : )

I was surprised how difficult this section was for me to read. I think this was because everything felt so current or recent, and was all the more painful for having lived through the changes Lepore describes. Particularly in her discussion of the internet, Lepore challenged me to think about how I was unconsciously caught up in creating the mess we have today.

I'm looking forward to discussing this last part of the book with everyone.

I had no idea Bobby Kennedy had been an aide to Joe McCarthy! Talk about politics making for strange bedfellows...

I also had no idea the McCarthy hearings and anti-Communism scare was so linked to rooting out homosexuals in the government.

I'm continually amazed by how many fascinating tidbits Lepore manages to pack into such a smooth narrative.

(And nice photo of our LT pal Joe's grandfather at the end of the McCarthy section.)

So would anyone call this a critical history of the US? Some of the comment here and on past threads make it sound like it certainly offers an alternative view than 'traditional' histories.

>8 LovingLit: - I guess it depends on your definition of critical vs traditional history. She is basically focusing on two themes - race relations and communications - and how they've shaped American history for good and ill. In that way, it's different from a traditional history because it's not just a long slog through major events and eras. I guess it's "critical" in the academic sense - close analysis and without a positive or negative bias in general.

Finished up this weekend. Here's what I wrote on my thread:

Lepore's history of conflict, race, economic disparity, and power in US politics is a magnificent read. She's got an ear for language that makes the history come alive, and the subjects she takes up are some of the most critical we should be reading about and discussing. As with all one-volume histories of the US - even those that run to nearly 1000 pages - this is not a comprehensive history, so Lepore focusses on her themes, sometimes neglecting the bigger world picture. But it's a great place to start to understand how we got where we are and how we're fighting many of the same conflicts over and over.

As I mentioned in the thread on Part I, I did a stint of reading US Presidential biographies in order a few years ago. Some of the same themes emerged from that reading, but the difference is that the pace allowed for a bigger, deeper picture of events. One thing that LePore doesn't dive into nearly as much as I had hoped was the pressures on various Presidents to make the decisions that they did. Clearly racial bias and economic bias drove some, but the situations were often more complicated than Lepore went into - for obvious reasons, she couldn't go much deeper. After all, it took about 5 years at 8 or 9 books as yet to finish.

I also felt like the pace of Part IV really picked up compared to previous parts. At the end she almost seemed to be rushing at breakneck speed to get to the end. Since it was already pushing 1000 pages, it seems like another 100 or so wouldn't matter to allow her to even it out.

All in all, though, this was an honest, brutal, fascinating read.

>10 drneutron: - Good comments, Jim! I expect I'll have similar things to say. Only two more chapters and the epilogue to go :)

I am struck, in the section on the Presidential race of 1968, of similarities to today's environment - the Republicans uniting around a common enemy (in '68 cloaked as being pro-law and order but was basically anti-black to win over Southern Democrats) and the Democrats incredibly fractured among various degrees of moderation and liberalism.

>10 drneutron: Congratulations on finishing, and thanks for the thoughtful comments.

I have a ways to go. I just got to the Checkers speech. Lepore does have a great way of hitting the highlights!

>6 lauralkeet: I haven't started the fourth book yet, because, as you discovered, I predict it will be too close and too disturbing. But I'll get there.

I just finished part 3 and will start part 4 as soon as I catch up a bit on two other group reads I'm involved in.

This is an amazing book. It's depressing, scary, eye-opening, analytical. I'm so glad I'm participating. Thanks, Kim!

Yay! I am on Part 4, but I am also finishing up a few things before I open the cover again. Glad you are enjoying this -- I am!!

In part 4, as in some of the other parts, I find it so strange that socialized medicine becomes a dirty word. I'm so glad we didn't have the equivalent of Baxter and Whitaker with their public opinion bending campaigns here.

I'm just through McCarthyism (that went on far too long), found the results of the Checkers interesting and I'm now looking at a photo of Billy Graham. Media focus has a lot to answer for, I think.

I've just started Part IV, and immediately find on page 525 an amazing truth:

The machines built to plot the trajectories and force of missiles and bombs would come to transform economic systems, social structures, and the workings of politics. Computers are often left out of the study of history and government, but, starting at the end of the Second World War, history and government cannot be understood without them. Democracies rely on an informed electorate; computers, the product of long and deep study and experiment, would both explode and unsettle the very nature of knowledge.

>18 karenmarie: I found this amazing, too, first because it's difficult to have an historical perspective on events in your own lifetime and second, because I spent my career in IT beginning in the mid-1980s. My career did not intersect with government or politics, but one couldn't help being aware of the impact IT was having on society. I didn't think of it as "unsettling the very nature of knowledge," but I remember industry trends like "knowledge management" and "collaboration," which you might say were precursors of social media, and the long-term effects of these technologies are unsettling, indeed. Although I doubt anyone could have made the connections Lepore is able to make today, I feel somewhat complicit for having gone merrily along with some of these developments, not realizing their impact.

>19 lauralkeet: I spent my career in IT, too, starting in 1972 technically, when I was a junior programmer learning FORTRAN at Pepperdine University my sophomore year. I went along with all the developments too, always trying to get people to fill in all the blanks on student registrations because ... data. After college my career was in business computing - mfg, financials, fixed assets, sales, etc. Lepore is synthesizing the data, giving a stunning perspective on historical events throughout the book.

I remember being appalled, though, when my niece showed me her Myspace home page. And although I have a Facebook presence, I don't post, occasionally like, and mostly lurk.

I'm convinced our smart TV is spying on us...

Here's my review as I finished the book yesterday. I’ve been reading this tome since January as part of the group read (thanks Kim) and the last part which dealt with recent history and right up to the 2016 election was the most riveting, probably because of its presence in our daily lives and the idea that our democracy may be unilaterally damaged by the unfit President that was elected. Lepore went to great lengths to draw lines between historical instances of threats to our democracy and what’s happening today and the biggest takeaway for me was that our country has dealt with issues of incredible tyranny in the past and gone on to mend the fissures and reinvigorate our democracy and we will be able to do it again when this period is over.

”A nation born in revolution will forever struggle against chaos. A nation founded on universal rights will wrestle against the forces of particularism. A nation that toppled a hierarchy of birth only to erect a hierarchy of wealth will never know tranquility. A nation of immigrants cannot close its borders. And 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.”

There are many instances throughout the book where I realized there were times in our history where I was truly embarrassed and ashamed of our country. This took me by surprise. I won’t forget the names of Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker, who founded Campaigns Inc. in 1933 and are responsible for the defeat of health insurance for all and began the kind of dirty, scheming politics that have become a way of life for our elections today. Money, money, money has led to where we’re stuck and they can claim a large share of the blame/credit depending on your point of view.

The role of technology, public opinion and polling has not really been beneficial to our democracy in many, many ways.

So much to learn and this book goes a long way toward informing those of us who appreciate being educated. Very highly recommended.

Done. What an amazing book. Thank you, Kim!

Here is my review: These Truths

I have also finished. Overall, I agree with Jim >10 drneutron:. A good read, thank you Kim for organizing us. I thought this last section of the book was the weakest. Here is my review.

I finished too! Thanks for setting up the group read. It was a very good book but so long that I need the nudge to get through.

Kim, although I ended up reading this book in December/January for a book group, I have you to thank for landing it on my TBR in the first place. I've also really enjoyed the monthly discussion here. Thank you for organizing this!

Whew! I'm finished. Like everyone else, I enjoyed taking part in this group. I fear I wouldn't have pursued the book on my own, but I'm so glad I did. It was uncomfortable reading in many sections, although I appreciated Lepore's giving us the unvarnished truth not the edited "truth" I got in my high school and college courses.

I thought the first sections were enlightening and well presented. I may have enjoyed the 4th section the most because it is the part I'm most familiar with, but it seemed rushed and the author's liberal bias leaked out in a few places. Oh well, it's her book. Haha. For the most part, I thought she gave us a balanced look at the ups and downs in our complicated history.

My full review can be found here.

Congrats all you hard readers! Nice reviews too :)

Yay! So glad you all enjoyed this read. History is not really my thing (as you can probably tell because I am still reading Part 4) and having all your comments and enthusiasm has made this a much better read for me. I AM GOING TO FINISH IT THIS MONTH! Hold me to it. : )

I'm still reading Part 4 as well, because of F2F book obligations, but I've finished them now. I should finish in a few days.

I'm going to start part four just any day now. I still have time, right? It's still April. Isn't it?

I finally finished Part 4 this afternoon, and >21 brenzi:, you said what I thought. It can be bitter indeed to find out that the story of our country propounded in our school days is mythology, and the true nature of the United States is as flawed, nasty, mistaken and bigoted as the people in it, the ones we assume are not 'us', when of course they are all of us.

For another view of the truths of our history, I recommend a volume I am in the process of listening to, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg. You might want to wait a bit, however, until you have recovered from Lepore's book.

April. May. June. Part four was scheduled for June, right? I am on target!! LOL