Secret Life of Books

Classic Books vs Trump: Jill Lepore on reading her way through the first 100 days

27 May 2025

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Jill Lepore is one of America’s most renowned intellectuals. She’s Professor not only of American History, but also of Law at Harvard University; she's a staff writer at the New Yorker, and still finds time to write some of the most renowned history books of the 21st Century, including the magisterial and monumental These Truths: A History of the United States, the brilliant Secret History of Wonder Woman and Sophie’s personal favourite, a history of King Phillip’s War and the origins of American identity.For the first 100 days of the new US presidency, Jill Lepore turned to the classics-- the Penguin Little Black Classics to be exact. In these miniature volumes of great writing, Jill found the imaginative intelligence, resilience and sense of ordinary pleasures she needed to abide with what's going on across America -- and at Harvard specifically -- as a result of Trump's turbulent regime. Listen and learn how the classics reconnect us with deep truths that we might "hold to be self-evident," but which have so often been under threat across human history.Books mentioned in this episode and published in Penguin Little Black Classics:The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio (~1350)"As Kingfishers Catch Fire," Gerard Manley Hopkins (1877)Anon. The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue (late 13C)Wailing Ghosts, Pu Songling (c.1640)"A Modest Proposal," Jonathan Swift (1727)Tang Dynasty Poets (c8C)"On the Beach at Night Alone," Walt Whitman (1856)A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees, Kenko (13C)"The Eve of St Agnes," John Keats (1819)"Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls," Marco Polo (c1300)"Caligula," Suetonius (121 CE)"Olalla," Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848)"Trimalchio's Feast", Petronius (c.60 CE)Inferno, Dante (14C)"The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale," Geoffrey Chaucer (c1390)Essais, Michel de Montaigne (1580)"The Beautifull Cassandra," Jane Austen (1788)Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey"The Maldive Shark," Herman Melville (1888)Socrates’ Defence, Plato (399 BCE)"Goblin Market," Christina Rossetti (1862)-- To join the Secret Life of Books Club visit: www.secretlifeofbooks.org-- Please support us on Patreon to keep the lights on in the SLoB studio and get bonus content: patreon.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast-- Follow us on our socials:youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretlifeofbookspodcast/shortsinsta: https://www.instagram.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast/bluesky: @slobpodcast.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Secret Life of Books

Classic Books vs Trump: Jill Lepore on reading her way through the first 100 days

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The Women Who Made Jane Austen

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