Germ theory, which secularized infectious disease, had a side effect: it sacralized epidemiology.
Jill LeporeOld reference books are like tree rings. Without them, there'd be no way to know what a tree had lived through.
Jill LeporeHistory is the art of making an argument about the past by telling a story accountable to evidence. In the writing of history, a story without an argument fades into antiquarianism; an argument without a story risks pedantry. Writing history requires empathy, inquiry, and debate. It requires forswearing condescension, cant, and nostalgia. The past isnโt quaint. Much of it, in fact, is bleak.
Jill Lepore