History is hereditary only in this way: we, all of us, inherit everything, and then we choose what to cherish, what to disavow, and what to do next, which is why it's worth trying to know where things come from. — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
Folklore used to be passed by word of mouth, from one generation to the next; that's what makes it folklore, as opposed to, say, history, which is written down and stored in an archive. — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
Weirdly, there have been a lot of critics of conservatism, but very few critics of innovation. As a culture, we are deeply paranoid about… — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesn't enter into it. — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
The very first television ad targeted to women was produced by the Eisenhower-Nixon campaign in 1956. It includes footage of a woman supervising her… — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
Republicans were more pro-choice than Democrats up until the late 1980s. — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
It feels silly to watch endless hours of winter sports every four years, when we never watch them any other time, and we don't… — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
Historians once assumed that when childhood mortality was high, people must not have loved their children very much; it would have been too painful.… — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
When carrying a concealed weapon for self-defense is understood NOT as a failure of civil society, to be mourned, but as an act of… — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
'Doctor Who' is, unavoidably, a product of mid-twentieth-century debates about Britain's role in the world as its empire unravelled. — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
“Still, it strikes me that, taken together, they do make an argument, and it is this: the rise of American democracy is bound up… — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
One day, I was playing 'The Game of Life,' the board game, with a mess of kids, and I wasn't quite sure how, but… — Jill Lepore Copy Share Image
