“Encounters in the New World,” written by Jill Lepore, is a collection of primary sources, ranging from the year of 1492 to the year 1789, that depict the beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions that went through the minds of the people during those time periods. The author, Jill Lepore, was born in a town outside of Worcester, Massachusetts on 1966 (Harvard, 1). Jill Lepore knew very early on in her life that she wanted to be a writer, not a historian. Upon entering college, Lepore declared a major in Mathematics by using the ROTC scholarship at Tufts University (Harvard, 1). However, Lepore eventually left the ROTC program and changed her major from Mathematics to English. Lepore graduated and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University in 1987, and then proceeded to acquire her Master of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1990 (Harvard, 1). She ultimately received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in American Studies, with a specialization in the history of early America, from Yale University in 1995 (Harvard, 1). After Lepore finished with postgraduate work, she began her career teaching at the University of California-San Diego, and then migrating to a job position at Boston University. Jill Lepore then joined the history department at Harvard University in 2003, where she still currently resides. Lepore climbed to the position of “Chairman of the History and Literatures Program” in 2005-2010, 2012, and 2014 (Harvard, 1). Along with her career as a professor, she also fulfilled her dream on becoming a writer. She won the noted Bancroft Prize for history for her book “The Name of War” in 1999, and in the same year published the book, “Encounters in the New World.” “Encounters in the New World” is mainly a collection of primary sources that tells the lives of people from the New World era. Through out the entire book, Jill Lepore used primary sources such as diaries, pictures and paintings,