These Truths: A History of the United States

On October 30, 1787, the New-York Packet printed a copy of the Constitution of the United States—a 4,400-word document that attempted to describe the functions of the new republic’s branches of government and the separation of their powers. After decades of historical unpredictability, the document tried to make history predictable, in addition to forming a government that would be determined by reason and choice. The delegates to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia had argued and toiled in secrecy all summer. By mid-September, they had “drafted a proposal written on four pages of parchment” (xi). Some who read the document feared that the new system gave the federal government too much power.

The second page of the New-York Packet featured an essay entitled “The Federalist No. 1,” which had been written anonymously by the 30-year-old lawyer Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton noted that the United States was “an experiment in the science of politics” (xiii). The results of the experiment, according to Hamilton, would answer an important question: Are people capable of establishing good government based on choice or will they allow chance to determine their political outcomes, which could lead them down the paths of corruption and demagoguery? This question rests at the center of this text, which deals with the “origins, course, and consequences of the American experiment over more than four centuries” (xiv).

The American experiment, according to Lepore, is based on three key political ideas: political equality, natural rights, and the people’s sovereignty. Thomas Jefferson initially described these political ideas as “sacred and undeniable” truths, leading Benjamin Franklin to cross out his words and suggest that they were instead “self-evident” (xv). Self-evident truths, after all, are based on empirical knowledge. The founders of the United States were lifelong students of history who looked toward historical events for their ideas about truth. They also looked toward ideas about morality, often rooted in Christian faith.

In writing this book, Lepore notes, she has tried to tell a story, though not the whole story. No one, she writes, could tell the whole story. She has sought neither to avoid criticism of the United States nor to make criticism a focal point.

In the introduction, Lepore focuses on the nation’s birth during the constitutional convention in Philadelphia. She sets the mood, particularly by illustrating to the reader the centrality of the printing press, a relatively new technology, in helping the public understand what would become its foundational document. It was important, too, for delegates to keep their deliberations secret until the Constitution was finalized—a decision that both deterred gossip and prevented the spread of misinformation, which might have destroyed plans to form the early republic.

Lepore also illuminates the early founders’ sense of the importance of creating an ordered government after living during the colonial period within a federation of states that acted autonomously. The importance of establishing a union was likely partly rooted in the American colonies’ need to provide themselves with protections against potentially hostile foreign powers. Meanwhile, there were also concerns over the vulnerability of the new citizenry and its capacity to establish a government based on reason, rather than being swayed by fads, sentiments, and nefarious interests.

The Founding Fathers sought examples for government in history, but the idea of the United States was unprecedented, despite having ideological roots in ancient Greece, the Roman Republic, and the writings of Enlightenment thinkers. It was to be a secular society rooted in Christian values. In later years, the latter influence would sometimes take precedence over the former, leading to political, social, and judicial battles.

In her conclusion to this section, Lepore does not claim authority over the national narrative and subtly negates assertions that some historians, journalists, and pundits have made over the years in this direction. The book is not a critical analysis of the United States, nor does it attempt to give a singularly objective look at the nation’s history. While history is largely a matter of fact—that is, a record of dates, names, and events—it is also an attempt to understand a people, in both their domestic and global contexts, through historical records. This latter effort is always subjective and fraught with debate.