No nation has a single history, no people a single song. Jill Lepore historynationpeople Change image and share on social
In the last years of the nineteen-eighties, I worked not at startups but at what might be called finish-downs. Tech companies that were dying would hire temps - college students and new graduates - to do what little was left of the work of the employees they'd laid off. Jill Lepore callcollegecompany share on social
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 cherishchoosedisavow share on social
The idea that debt is necessary for trade, and has to be forgiven, is consequent to the rise of a market economy. The idea that debt is wrong and should be punished is a feature of a moral economy. Jill Lepore consequentdebteconomy Change image and share on social
When business became big business - conglomerates employing hundreds and even thousands of people - companies divided themselves into still smaller units. Jill Lepore bigbusinesscompany Change image and share on social
Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, for modernity, and for prosperity. The wealthy pay more because they have benefitted more. Jill Lepore benefitcivilizemodernity Change image and share on social
When I was a kid, my father would go to our school in the summer to sweep, mop, and wax the floors, room by room, hall by hall, week after week. Jill Lepore fatherfloorhall Change image and share on social
As with the factory, so with the office: in an assembly line, the smaller the piece of work assigned to any single individual, the less skill it requires, and the less likely the possibility that doing it well will lead to doing something more interesting and better paid. Jill Lepore assemblyassignfactory share on social
Historians once assumed that when childhood mortality was high, people must not have loved their children very much; it would have been too painful. Research has since proved that assumption wrong. Jill Lepore assumeassumptionchild Change image and share on social
An ordinary life used to look something like this: born into a growing family, you help rear your siblings, have the first of your own half-dozen or even dozen children soon after you're grown, and die before your youngest has left home. Jill Lepore bearchilddie share on social
