Story of America

From celebrated writer Jill Lepore, a literary and political history of American origin stories 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. Along the way it presents fresh readings of Benjamin Franklin's Way to Wealth, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, and "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, as well as histories of lesser-known genres, including biographies of presidents, novels of immigrants, and accounts of the Depression.From past to present, Lepore argues, Americans have wrestled with the idea of democracy by telling stories. In this thoughtful and provocative book, Lepore offers at once a history of origin stories and a meditation on storytelling itself.

Introduction 1

1. Here He Lyes 17


2. A Pilgrim Passed I 31


3. The Way to Wealth 44


4. The Age of Paine 59


5. We the Parchment 72


6. I.O.U. 91


7. A Nue Merrykin Dikshunary 111


8. His Highness 130


9. Man of the People 146


10. Pickwick in America 159


11. The Humbug 178


12. President Tom's Cabin 197


13. Pride of the Prairie 209


14. Longfellow's Ride 220


15. Rock, Paper, Scissors 240


16. Objection 254


17. Chan the Man 268


18. The Uprooted 279


19. Rap Sheet 291


20. To Wit 304


Notes 319
Index 399