The American Beast

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781399810197

Price: £14.99

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‘A stunning mosaic of contemporary America’ Fintan O’Toole

‘Essential reading, with quick insights and bomblets of surprise’ TLS

A panoptical vision of modern America, from the brilliant mind of Jill Lepore.

The 2010s marked a shift in America’s trajectory, beginning with the run-up to Donald Trump’s election, through to the chaos and confusion left in its wake. With the wit and verve that has made her the acclaimed national historian of a generation, Jill Lepore reflects on the consuming fissures of this era: culture wars and media corrosion; disruptive innovation and techno-utopianism; constitutional crises surrounding gun rights and a reckoning with a deep history of racial violence.

These essays make sense of American life in a moment of polarization, capturing the tumultuous relationship between the country’s violent past and fractured present.

Praise for Jill Lepore:

‘The pre-eminent historian of forgotten tales from America’s past’ David Runciman

‘A person can’t help but feel inspired by the riveting intelligence and joyful curiosity of Lepore’ George Saunders

‘Lepore writes history like a poet’ Dan Snow

‘Lepore is that rare combination in modern life of intellect, originality and style’ Amanda Foreman

Reviews

If you want to know how America got here, Lepore's essays are essential reading, with quick insights and bomblets of surprise
TLS
Lepore is a brilliant historian . . . She sees history as a narrative and digs deep to investigate the root cause of problems
Irish Times
PRAISE FOR JILL LEPORE: The pre-eminent historian of forgotten tales from America's past
David Runciman
Lepore is America's greatest living essayist. No one else can sway so gracefully between the personal and the political, the micro and the macro, while remaining so firmly grounded in common human experience . . . These wonderful essays form a stunning mosaic of contemporary America and an alternative annal of our times
Fintan O'Toole
A person can't help but feel inspired by the riveting intelligence and joyful curiosity of Lepore. Knowing that there is a mind like hers in the world is a hope-inducing thing
George Saunders
Lepore writes history like a poet
Dan Snow
Lepore is that rare combination in modern life of intellect, originality and style
Amanda Foreman
A compelling political narrative
David Kynaston