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Jill Lepore Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Jill Lepore
Photo: Rose Lincoln

Jill Lepore

How to pronounce Jill Lepore: Jill luh-POOR

Jill Lepore Biography

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and professor of law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her many books include the international bestseller These Truths: A History of the United States. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.



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Interview

Jill Lepore discusses her nonfiction work: The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death

Q: You show how prevailing opinions about life and death can change the course of politics, and can in fact be dangerous. In your opinion, is there a particular lesson from the past that we need to take to heart as these debates and discussions of life continue?

A: There are only two lessons. 1. The past is not dispositive. 2. No day is a bad day to read E.B. White’s 1947 essay, “Death of a Pig.”

Q: You've taken on some of the biggest questions of the human condition in this book, and yet you've approached them through very familiar experiences: parenting fears, breastfeeding, board games, children's literature, adolescence, etc. How did you decide on this approach?

A: I didn't decide on that as an approach so much as it's just how my mind works. I spend a lot of time puzzling over the ordinary, wondering where things come from and why they are the way they are. Coffee cups, voting rights, traffic lights - anything, everything. Most things, the longer and harder you think about them, the bigger and harder the questions they raise. One day I was playing The Game of Life, spinning the Wheel of Fate and driving down the Highway of Life, and I thought, "Hey, where did this game come from, anyway?"

Q:...

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Books by this Author

Books by Jill Lepore at BookBrowse
We the People jacket The Deadline jacket If Then jacket The Mansion of Happiness jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Jill Lepore but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Erica Brown

    Erica Brown

    Dr. Erica Brown is a writer and educator who works as the scholar-in-residence for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. She is the author of Inspired Jewish Leadership, a National Jewish Book Award finalist, and a ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Mansion of Happiness

    Try:
    Happier Endings
    by Erica Brown

  • Sebastian Junger

    Sebastian Junger

    Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe, War, Freedom, A Death in Belmont, Fire, and The Perfect Storm, and codirector of the documentary film Restrepo, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Mansion of Happiness

    Try:
    Tribe
    by Sebastian Junger

We recommend 7 similar authors

View all 7 Read-Alikes

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