This America
The Case for the Nation
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Narrated by:
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Jill Lepore
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By:
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Jill Lepore
About this listen
From the best-selling author of These Truths, a work that examines the dilemma of nationalism and the erosion of liberalism in the 21st century.
At a time of much despair over the future of liberal democracy, Harvard historian Jill Lepore makes a stirring case for the nation in This America. Since the end of the Cold War, Lepore writes, American historians have largely retreated from the idea of "the nation", in part because postmodernism has corroded faith in grand narratives, and in part because the rise of political nationalism has rendered it suspect and unpalatable. Bucking this trend, however, Lepore argues forcefully that the nation demands scrutiny. Without an honest reckoning with America's collective past, we will be at the mercy of unscrupulous demagogues who spin their own version of the national story for their own purposes. "When serious historians abandon the study of the nation", Lepore tellingly writes, "nationalism doesn't die. Instead, it eats liberalism."
A trenchant work of political philosophy as well as a reclamation of America's national history, This America asks us to look our nation's sovereign past square in the eye to reveal not only a history of contradictions, but a path of promise for the future.
Cover art © 2019 Estate of Arcola Pettway / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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Critic reviews
"Ambitious...a thoughtful and passionate defense of her vision of American patriotism.... [Lepore] dedicates her book to her father, 'whose immigrant parents named him Amerigo in 1924, the year Congress passed a law banning immigrants like them.'" (Michael Lind, New York Times)
"A sharp, short history of nationalism.... A frank, well-written look at the dangers we face. We ignore them at our peril." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
"Urgent and pithy.... Readers seeking clear and relevant definitions of political concepts will appreciate this brisk yet thorough, frank, and bracing look at the ancient origins of the nation state versus the late-18th-century coinage of the term ‘nationalism’ and its alignment with exclusion and prejudice." (Booklist)
"A hopeful book for all who believe that America's ideals are stronger than our demagogues." (Michael Bloomberg)
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By: Pankaj Mishra
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A Thousand Small Sanities
- The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
- By: Adam Gopnik
- Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto rooted in the lives of people who invented and extended the liberal tradition. Taking us from Montaigne to Mill, and from Middlemarch to the civil rights movement, Adam Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor simply another word for free markets, nor merely a term denoting a set of rights. It is something far more ambitious: the search for radical change by humane measures. Gopnik shows us why liberalism is one of the great moral adventures in human history.
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Erudite and entertaining!
- By D. A. Vail on 05-20-19
By: Adam Gopnik
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Behold, America
- The Entangled History of "America First" and "the American Dream"
- By: Sarah Churchwell
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In Behold, America, Sarah Churchwell offers a surprising account of 20th-century Americans' fierce battle for the nation's soul. It follows the stories of two phrases - the "American dream" and "America First" - that once embodied opposing visions for America. Starting as a Republican motto before becoming a hugely influential isolationist slogan during World War I, America First was always closely linked with authoritarianism and white supremacy. The American dream, meanwhile, initially represented a broad vision of democratic and economic equality.
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History we need to know
- By Caroline Pufalt on 12-09-18
By: Sarah Churchwell
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American Rule
- How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People
- By: Jared Yates Sexton
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton upends those convenient fictions by laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of our collective American imagination. From the very origins of this nation, Americans in power have abused and subjugated others; enabling that corruption are the many myths of American exceptionalism and steadfast values, which are fed to the public and repeated across generations.
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Truth
- By Laurie on 09-28-20
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Liberal Fascism
- The Secret History of the American Left
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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"Fascists", "Brownshirts", "jackbooted stormtroopers" - such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?
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Great book
- By Mark on 05-10-08
By: Jonah Goldberg
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The 1619 Project
- A New Origin Story
- By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper - editor, and others
- Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Full Cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together 18 essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.
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Comprehensive and Cutting
- By Thomas Ray on 12-30-21
By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others
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We the Fallen People
- The Founders and the Future of American Democracy
- By: Robert Tracy McKenzie
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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We the Fallen People presents a close look at the ideas of human nature to be found in the history of American democratic thought. McKenzie, following C. S. Lewis, claims there are only two reasons to believe in majority rule: because we have confidence in human nature - or because we don't. The Founders subscribed to the biblical principle that humans are fallen and their virtue is always doubtful, and they wrote the US Constitution to frame a republic intended to handle our weaknesses.
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Thoughtful reflection and historical perspective, but ultimately no easy answer
- By Brandon on 03-28-23
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Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
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History never taught
- By Scott P ODonnell on 02-16-21
By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
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Debunking the 1619 Project
- Exposing the Plan to Divide America
- By: Mary Grabar
- Narrated by: Liisa Ivary
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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According the New York Times’ “1619 Project”, America was not founded in 1776, with a declaration of freedom and independence, but in 1619 with the introduction of African slavery into the New World. Ever since then, the “1619 Project” argues, American history has been one long sordid tale of systemic racism.
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the ultimate downplay
- By Stephen Alston on 01-09-22
By: Mary Grabar
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The Nation That Never Was
- Reconstructing America's Story
- By: Kermit Roosevelt
- Narrated by: Kermit Roosevelt III
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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We face a dilemma these days. We want to be honest about our history and the racism and oppression that Americans have both inflicted and endured. But we want to be proud of our country, too. In The Nation That Never Was, Roosevelt shows how we can do both those things by realizing we’re not the country we thought we were. Reconstruction, Roosevelt argues, was not a fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a repudiation: we modern Americans are not the heirs of the Founders but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order.
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A Necessary Book.
- By Jason Baumbach on 01-30-24
By: Kermit Roosevelt
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Suicide of the West
- How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Jonah Goldberg
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle.
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Put some gratitude in your attitude
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-18
By: Jonah Goldberg
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The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
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Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
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Good Story but distracting sound engineering
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?
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Been waiting for this
- By Terry W. on 07-14-23
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Setting current problems on a historical and human context
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The Story of America
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In The Story of America, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore investigates American origin stories - from John Smith's account of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural address - to show how American democracy is bound up with the history of print. Over the centuries, Americans have read and written their way into a political culture of ink and type. Part civics primer, part cultural history, The Story of America excavates the origins of everything from the paper ballot and the Constitution to the I.O.U. and the dictionary.
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A Fun Read on Historical Subjects
- By Jim on 08-31-13
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The Whites of Their Eyes
- The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle Over American History
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Americans have always put the past to political ends. The Union laid claim to the Revolution - so did the Confederacy. Civil rights leaders said they were the true sons of liberty - so did Southern segregationists. This book tells the story of the centuries-long struggle over the meaning of the nation's founding, including the battle waged by the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and evangelical Christians to "take back America".
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Fantastic, well researched and even handed
- By MF on 03-09-15
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Good Story but distracting sound engineering
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?
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The Story of America
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- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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In The Story of America, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore investigates American origin stories - from John Smith's account of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural address - to show how American democracy is bound up with the history of print. Over the centuries, Americans have read and written their way into a political culture of ink and type. Part civics primer, part cultural history, The Story of America excavates the origins of everything from the paper ballot and the Constitution to the I.O.U. and the dictionary.
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What listeners say about This America
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Becky Barrera
- 08-07-19
A breezy essay
Enthusiatic and animated narration propels this long essay through the history of nationalism and liberalism is the U.S.. It isn't a precise, forensic history but Lepore takes us through definitions and past eras through the voices of the actual people who helped define patriotism. This was engaging and illuminating!
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1 person found this helpful
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- J. L. E. Pfaff
- 10-03-20
A Much Need Context for Today
This is a great overview both of American history and the case for teaching it.
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- Karl R. Walko
- 04-25-22
What does it mean to be an American?
A short and fascinating book on the importance of coming to terms with our past and the unavoidable necessity of dealing with the concept of an American nation. Whether we like it or not.
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- Gary
- 04-26-20
Great
Great book for anyone who knows Jill Legore's work. I recommend it to anyone who likes intellectual discourse.
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- Shannon Caldwell
- 01-27-20
Important
A must-read for (1) anyone who finishes These Truths and wants to know what the writer advocates and (2) anyone who wants to identify and embrace the best parts of liberal and conservative ideology. Short, sweet, and essential.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Stuart Kermes
- 02-07-24
Embracing our best
A concise, well-written argument for why our national identity matters and a new passionate call for the best version of ourselves.
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- Theodore Quisenberry
- 07-01-19
The Case for the Nation
Was looking forward to another presentation that was a good as "These Truths", but was disappointed. Was interesting but liked the ability to draw you in and want more. At times was repetitive. She is an brilliant author and narrator but I had to work to keep engaged.
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- Anthony Spicola
- 07-08-20
A Gem
Outstanding from start to finish, bravo. She has managed to again bring so much life into American history.
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- Sean Dooley
- 02-21-20
recommend!
it's funny how this little book and short listen opens you up to a world of perspective
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- D. C. Dalzell
- 02-18-20
Every American Should Read
Jill Lepore’s performance of her words is extraordinary! Every person who is worried about where we as a nation are going needs to read this account of the ideas, thoughts and ideals of the Americans who came before us to shape what is This America. Her Fredrick Douglas and W. B. Debois read as true today as when first spoken. I only wish I would hear more of these from our politicians and historians alike.
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