By Raymond Matthews
Academics should employ the techniques of narrative nonfiction to keep historical writing relevant and engaging, says Jill Lepore, a Harvard historian and New Yorker columnist who held an informal discussion with students at UC Santa Barbara sponsored by the History Department.
“You can grab a reader by persuading them by way of a story instead of an argument,” she said. “I always structure articles so that you’re wrapped up in the story and you won’t even notice the argument I’m making until the very end.”
Lepore writes historical essays for the New Yorker that connect modern political phenomena such as the recent impeachment hearings and the changing nature of democracy to historical events. She describes herself as a “historical reporter.”
“I write about anything that catches my interest really, and most of the time that winds up being history, and I like to think of my writing as historical reporting,” she said.
Lepore’s most recent essays, The Impeachment Hearings and the Coming Storm and The Last Time Democracy Almost Died, are analyses of American political history that give readers context to understand the nuances of modern government.
One of Lepore’s main challenges as a writer is to get readers interested in historical topics and events that they may not otherwise pay attention to. She says she does so by combining argumentative, essay-like writing with narrative structure to make readers feel like they’re reading a story.
While Lepore has a very academic interest in history, her essays read more like historical stories than traditional academic essays.
“I always start my projects with a scholarly interest, but I try to hide that more scholarly side of it as much as I can so that I won’t bore people,” she said. “I never want my writing to come across in a self- congratulatory, ‘Look at me, I’m so smart!’ kind of way. The reader should feel like they’ve pieced the story together themselves. So I use a narrative style to give people that satisfaction.”
Even though Lepore is a Harvard history professor, she doesn’t have any post-graduate degrees in history, which often causes people to question her authority on the topics that she covers.
“A lot of the time people will question the validity of my work because I don’t have any degrees in history. But the New Yorker has some of the strictest fact checkers in the world and I spend whole weeks in our archives researching because I want to report the information as accurately as possible,” she said.
“But honestly, there are too few female historical authorities out there publishing their work so I’m grateful that my work is getting published and being well received.”
Raymond Matthews is a third year Political Science major at UC Santa Barbara. He is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.