The Book Prize Index

The Story of America

Jill Lepore

In this book, the author investigates American origin stories, from John Smith's account of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural address, in order to show how American democracy is bound up with the history of print. It excavates the origins of everything from the paper ballot and the Constitution to the I.O.U. and the dictionary. It presents readings of Benjamin Franklin's Way to Wealth, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, and Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, as well as histories of lesser-known genres, including biographies of presidents, novels of immigrants, and accounts of the Depression. From past to present, the author argues, Americans have wrestled with the idea of democracy by telling stories; here, she offers both a history of origin stories and a meditation on storytelling itself.

HistoryAmerican History · medium confidenceAmerican History81 signalsLlm Classifier: American History -> American HistoryKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryTopic Classifier: Constitutional History -> American HistoryConstitutional HistoryDemocracy & ElectionsPresidency & Executive PowerRegional & Local History

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay2013FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • John Smith78%
    Show lower-confidence suggestions

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Benjamin Franklin62%
    • Barack Obama56%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Jamestown60%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    American democracy is bound up with the history of print, and Americans have wrestled with democracy by telling stories.

    Model confidence 74%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    55 / 100 academic

    Trade / academic crossover

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 74%.