This is thinking in public a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

front-line theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Mola, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,

Kentucky.

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper, professor of American History at Harvard University, and staff writer

for The New Yorker.

A prize-winning professor, she teaches classes in evidence, historical methods, humanistic

inquiry, and American History.

Her books include The Name of War,

which won the Bancroft Prize, New York Burning,

which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History

and Book of Ages, a finalist for the National Book Award.

Her latest book, These Trues, A History of the United States,

came out just a few weeks ago and is the topic of our conversation today.

Professor Lepore, welcome to thinking in public.

Professor Lepore, when you wrote this book, this massive one-volume history, a narrative

of the United States in one volume.

Wouldn't you say that's kind of an audacious project in the year 2018 when the book was released?

Sure, I guess in the best sense I would hope that it's with an ambitious project to take on and I think also an urgent one.

Yes, someone's going to tell this story. I have to tell you I so thoroughly enjoyed the book.

I've been looking forward to this conversation because it takes a remarkable historical ability to be able to sustain a narrative for you know several hundred

pages not to mention covering several centuries and and you accomplished that

...