Jill Lepore

Professor of History at Harvard University and contributor to the New Yorker

Jill Lepore appears in the following:

#3: Rags to Riches

Friday, October 14, 2016

Confronting the myth that America is a land of equal opportunity and upward mobility for all. 

Polling & Democracy: An Uneasy Relationship

Friday, August 12, 2016

What if the problem with polling isn't bad polls but polls in general? The New Yorker's Jill Lepore on the history of polling and why skepticism is, and has always been, necessary.

Madman or Brilliant Historian? Unraveling the True Story of Joe Gould

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Jill Lepore embarked on a quest to uncover the truth behind the eccentric modernist writer Joe Gould in her new book, "Joe Gould's Teeth." 

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Polling & Democracy: An Uneasy Relationship

Friday, December 18, 2015

What if the problem with polling isn't bad polls but polls in general? The New Yorker's Jill Lepore on the history of polling and why skepticism is, and has always been, necessary.

Inside the Political Polling Machine

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

The influence of political polls has been increasing, while the effectiveness of polls has been in decline. The New Yorker's Jill Lepore discusses the next frontier in polling.

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The Search for Big Brown, Pt. 3

Friday, November 06, 2015

Staff writer Jill Lepore concludes her three-part story about her friend Adriana Alty’s search for her biological father, a Greenwich Village street poet named William “Big” Brown.

The Search for Big Brown, Pt. 2

Friday, October 30, 2015

In the second installment of staff writer Jill Lepore’s story, her childhood friend Adrianna Alty uncovers further details about her biological father.

Family History

Monday, October 26, 2015

Jill Lepore talks about her three-part feature for The New Yorker Radio Hour about a friend's family history.

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The Search for Big Brown, Pt. 1

Friday, October 23, 2015

Staff writer Jill Lepore presents part one in a three-part series about her childhood friend, Adrianna Alty, who was one of few people of color in her town growing up.

The Secret History of the Man who Created Wonder Woman

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston, was influenced by suffragists, feminists, and centerfold pin-ups. 

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The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Benjamin Franklin, who wrote more letters to his sister than he wrote to anyone else, was the original American self-made man; his sister spent her life caring for her 12 children. Historian Jill Lepore shows that Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister was, like her brother, a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only one woman but an entire world.

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Jill Lepore on the Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Benjamin Franklin, who wrote more letters to his sister than he wrote to anyone else, was the original American self-made man; his sister spent her life caring for her 12 children. Historian Jill Lepore shows that Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister was, like her brother, a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only one woman but an entire world.

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Guest Picks: Jill Lepore

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Historian Jill Lepore came to the Lopate Show studios on October 1, 2013, to talk about her new book, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, about Benjamin Franklin's sister, Jane. She shared her guest picks with us.

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Privacy in an Age of Publicity

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Jill Lepore traces the history of privacy in America. Her article “The Prism” appears in the June 24 issue of The New Yorker.

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Transparency, Secrecy and Freedom: The History of Privacy and Democracy

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

As we learn more about the National Security Agency's secret surveillance programs and leaker Edward Snowden, The Takeaway is looking at freedom in America, and freedom's relationship...

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The World's First Political Consulting Firm

Friday, October 12, 2012

In the 1930's, married couple Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter founded Campaigns, Inc., the world's first political consulting firm. In the ensuing 30 years, Campaigns Inc. pioneered tactics like the out-of-context quote, relentless pamphleteering, and what we now call opposition research, all techniques that are part of the modern campaign playbook. Bob talks to Jill Lepore, New Yorker contributor and author of The Story of America: Essays on Origins about Whitaker and Baxter's political legacy.

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Jill Lepore on "The Lie Factory"

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore discusses her latest article, “The Lie Factory,” about how politics became a business. Lepore is also the author of the new book The Story of America: Essays on Origins.

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American History XX: Jane Franklin Mecom

Monday, July 02, 2012

To celebrate the Independence Day we’re profiling forgotten, underappreciated, or just plain interesting American women who, in many cases, have been written out of the history books. For today’s installment of that series, American History XX, The New Yorker’s Jill Lepore fills us in on the life of Jane Franklin Mecom, Ben Franklin’s sister whom he corresponded with often, but eventually wrote out of his own autobiography.

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Mansion of Happiness

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Jill Lepore, professor of American History at Harvard University and staff writer at The New Yorker, discusses her new book, The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death, a history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to beyond the grave.

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Jill Lepore on the End of It All

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

When does life begin? When does it end? In the political climate of the twenty-first century, as candidates spar over abortion and death panels, everyone seems to have a different opi...

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