Overview

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling historian, Jill Lepore, comes a bold new history of nationalism, and a plan for hope in the twenty-first century. With dangerous forms of nationalism on the rise, at a time of much despair over the future of liberal democracy, Harvard historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore makes a stirring case for the nation - and repudiates nationalism by explaining its long history. In part a primer on the origins of nations, The Case for the Nation explains how much of American history has been a battle between nationalism, liberal and illiberal, all the way down to the nation's latest, bitter struggles over immigration. Defending liberalism, as The Case for the Nation demonstrates, requires making the case for the nation. But American historians largely abandoned that defense in the 1960s when they stopped writing national history. By the 1980s they'd stopped studying the nation-state altogether and embraced globalism instead. When serious historians abandon the study of the nation, nationalism doesn't die. Instead, it eats liberalism. But liberalism is still in there, and The Case for the Nation is an attempt to pull it out. A manifesto for a better world, and a call for a new engagement with national narratives, The Case for the Nation reclaims the future by acknowledging the past.

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9781529386141

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Praise for Jill Lepore - - This vivid history brings alive the contradictions and hypocrisies of the land of the free - The Times A history for the 21st century, far more inclusive than the standard histories of the past - Guardian Monumental ... a crucial work for presenting a fresh and clear-sighted narrative of the entire story ... exciting and page-turningly fascinating, in one of those rare history books that can be read with pleasure for its sheer narrative energy - New Statesman Jill Lepore is that rare combination in modern life of intellect, originality and style - TLS It isn't until you start reading it that you realise how much we need a book like this one at this particular moment. A big sweeping book, a way for us to take stock at this point in the journey, to look back, to remind us who we are and to point to where we're headed - New York Times This sweeping, sobering account of the American past is a story not of relentless progress but of conflict and contradiction, with crosscurrents of reason and faith, black and white, immigrant and native, industry and agriculture rippling through a narrative that is far from completion - The New York Times Book Review

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-eighteenth-century coinage of the term 'nationalism' and its alignment with exclusion and prejudice. - Booklist Praise for These Truths: It isn't until you start reading it that you realize how much we need a book like this one at this particular moment. THESE TRUTHS by Jill Lepore...is a big sweeping book, a way for us to take stock at this point in the journey, to look back, to remind us who we are and to point to where we're headed. - New York Times Book Review This sweeping, sobering account of the American past is a story not of relentless progress but of conflict and contradiction, with crosscurrents of reason and faith, black and white, immigrant and native, industry and agriculture rippling through a narrative that is far from completion. - The New York Times Book Review, Editors Choice In this inspiring and enlightening book, Jill Lepore accomplishes the grand task of telling us what we need to know about our past in order to be good citizens today. - Walter Isaacson

Author Information

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her many books include The Secret History of Wonder Woman, a national bestseller, and Book of Ages, a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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