Another Legitimate Voice; Science and Spirituality; Chicago's Metropolitan Diary

By EVAN R. GOLDSTEIN

"I can't possibly count the number of people I have met over the years who've said, 'You write like an old man,'" Jill Lepore says with a slight laugh. Those awkward exchanges suggest how gravitas in historical writing is typically associated with a "deeply analytical and rigorous prose style," according to Lepore, a professor of American history at Harvard University. "I love that persona, but there is another legitimate voice with which to write about the past."

That voice is