Jill Lepore

Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.

How government commissions became alibis for inaction.

The deadly episode stood for a bitterly divided era. Did we ever leave it?

Until a century or so ago, almost no one lived alone; now many endure shutdowns and lockdowns on their own. How did modern life get so lonely?

In the literature of pestilence, the greatest threat isn’t the loss of human life but the loss of what makes us human.

In the past two centuries, the evolution of the U.S. Census has tracked the country’s social tensions and reflected its political controversies.

By examining the upheaval of the nineteen-thirties, we can recognize similarities between today and democracy's last near-death experience.

The novelist drew on far-flung voyages to create his masterpiece. But he could finish it only at his beloved Berkshire farm.

"Inevitably, the age of national bootblacks and national oyster houses and national blacksmiths produced national history books."

In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face.

On writing the story of America, the rise and fall of the fact, and how women’s intellectual authority is undermined.

During Watergate, historians helped catalogue accusations made against past Presidents; their findings may be useful again.

How a conservative agenda and a feminist cause came together to transform criminal justice.

She did not write her most famous work until late in life. Until then, she thought of herself as a poet of the sea.

Our mortuary conventions reveal a lot about our relation to the past.

The fight for the First Amendment, on campuses and football fields, from the sixties to today.

Underlying current debates, says Jill Lepore, are fundamental conflicts over the meanings of the past.

James Madison thought of a lot of good reasons to impeach a President. Members of Congress might want to consult his list.

How should the courts use history?

How feminism and antifeminism created Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The crazy history of nominating Conventions.

Griswold v. Connecticut became about privacy; what if it had been about equality?

The Web dwells in a never-ending present. The Wayback Machine aims to preserve its past.

The history of the comic-book superhero's creation seven decades ago has been hidden away — until now.