The Importance of Civics and History with Jill Lepore In Conversation with Robin Young: A Discussion of These Truths and This America

Cambridge Center for Adult Education presents The Importance of Civics and History with Jill Lepore In Conversation with Robin Young: A Discussion of These Truths and This America, as part of its continuing series, Conversations on the Edge. The Conversation will take place on Thursday, November 12th at 6pm virtually over Zoom and is free to the public.

 As part of its continuing series, Conversations on the Edge, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, in partnership with the Cambridge Community Foundation and with the support of First Republic Bank presents “The Importance of Civics and History with Jill Lepore In Conversation with Robin Young: A Discussion of These Truths and This America” on Thursday November 12^th.

Conversations on the Edge addresses pressing issues through dynamic conversations with panelists who are experts and local activists. Recognizing that contributing to a strong social fabric is a responsibility of educational institutions, the Cambridge Center aims to foster a continuing sense of community around these issues. Through the time of the pandemic, these conversations will be presented virtually via Zoom, free to the public, with tickets at https://ccae.org/happenings/events/the-importance-of-civics-and-history-with-jill-lepore-in-conversation-with-robin-young-a-discussion-of-these-truths-and-this-america.

Acclaimed writer, thinker and historian, Professor Jill Lepore, will be in conversation with Robin Young co-host of NPR’s Here & Now about Lepore’s These Truths: A History of the United States of America and This America: The Case for the Nation – with the intention of sparking a community-wide discussion of why history matters and why we need to bring civics back to life, as framed in both of these best-selling recent books.
Widely hailed for its “sweeping, sobering account of the American past” (New York Times Book Review), Jill Lepore’s history of America places truth itself―a devotion to facts, proof and evidence―at the center of the nation’s history. The American experiment rests on three ideas― “these truths,” Jefferson called them―political equality, natural rights, and the sovereignty of the people. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? These Truths tells this uniquely American story, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. Lepore continues the conversation in This America, arguing that by purging American identity of nationalism and re-founding it on a purified liberalism, we can reclaim the nation’s future by reclaiming its past.
This conversation could not be more relevant than in these unsettled political times, when constitutional questions about the Supreme Court, the Presidency, and the future of democracy are all being questioned.

About the Cambridge Center for Adult Education: Since 1870, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education has been dedicated to providing the widest range of high-quality, low-cost learning opportunities for the diverse adults of Greater Boston and Cambridge and surrounding areas. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE) remains deeply committed to place-based, person-to-person, experiential learning across a wide range of topics.