Jill Lepore’s brilliant book, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History (Princeton University Press, 2010), sparked some fascinating dinner table conversations over the last few months on the current political landscape in America, manipulative public rhetoric, naked grabs for power, the perils of unbound ambition, and how singular historical events can be hijacked by wildly disparate political interests.

Lepore chronicles how key events leading up to the American Revolution have been (mis)interpreted and exploited to endorse a bizarre range of causes over the last few centuries.  I’ll likely have much more to say about this book down the road, but just note for now that it’s a scintillating summer read.