No upcoming perfomances found for this event.
About the Show
From 2026 Pulitzer Prize winner of We the People, comes an urgent account of how rule by machine has ravaged the world in The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State. Jill Lepore is an international best-selling author, American historian and journalist currently serving as the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History and Professor of Law at Harvard University in addition to her contributions as a staff writer for The New Yorker since 2005. As a wide-ranging and prolific essayist, Lepore writes about American history, law, literature, and politics with much of her scholarship exploring absences and asymmetries in the historical record, giving particular emphasis on the history and technology of evidence. In a year with great emphasis on our 250th, Lepore visits Charleston as part of a limited number of appearances to share this new book and an intimate understanding of the fascinating origins of modern civilization, and the creep of automated democracy in the name of progress that has seen its apotheosis in AI.
Please note: Light blue, dark blue, and green seats on the seat map will include a signed copy of The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.
Orange seats will not include a copy. To purchase additional copies, please do so here.
By purchasing a ticket, you are opting in to receive email messages from Charleston Library Society and Buxton Books.
SOLD OUT | Pre-Show Meet and Greet Add-On
Join us for a pre-show meet and greet at 5pm! Limited availability.
Please note: this is an add-on VIP ticket only; you must purchase a separate ticket to the event as well.
The Artificial State is the factory farming of humans, the sorting and segmenting, the isolation and alienation, the destruction of both human community and the capacity for self-government, the replacement of rule of, by, and for the people with the rule of machines owned by corporations. Within the Artificial State, humans become to machines what animals have been to humans.
Jill Lepore
Runtime: 75 minutes
Please note all times are approximate and subject to change without notice.
About Jill Lepore
Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her books include “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution,” which won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for history and was long-listed for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction; “The Name of War,” which won a Bancroft Prize; “New York Burning,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for history; “Book of Ages,” a finalist for the National Book Award; “The Secret History of Wonder Woman”; the international best-seller “These Truths: A History of the United States”; and “The Deadline,” which received a PEN America award for the art of the essay. She is the host of the podcast “The Last Archive” and of the BBC Radio 4 program “X-Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story.”
About Kevin Sack
Kevin Sack is a veteran journalist who has written broadly about national affairs for more than four decades and has shared in three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church, which explores the 200-year history of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, before and after the 2015 massacre of nine parishioners by a young white supremacist. The book was honored as one of three finalists for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. A native of Jacksonville, Florida, and a graduate of Duke University, he spent thirty years on the staff of The New York Times, where he specialized in writing long-form narrative and investigative reports, often related to race. He has also written forthe Los Angeles Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and his work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine. He was a 2019 Emerson Collective Fellow at New America.
About Buxton Books
Buxton Books, opened in 2016, is an independent bookstore located on King Street in downtown Charleston, SC. With a knowledgeable staff, highly curated book selection, and robust event schedule, we value and uphold the traditions of a neighborhood bookstore while also welcoming the visiting reading community. We specialize in multi-day author weekends with events ranging from bespoke walking tours to culinary events, and are proud to partner with incredible venues throughout Charleston, including the Gaillard Center.
About Charleston Library Society
The Charleston Library Society remains the oldest cultural institution in the South, founded in 1748 as a member-supported lending library for life-long learning. Still today, it serves the Lowcountry with access to its collections of books, historic manuscripts and archives, along with programming on the arts, literature, history, world affairs and music – continuing its long tradition as a vibrant literary and cultural epicenter for its members and the community — a living celebration of ideas.
Student & Teacher Tickets
The Charleston Gaillard Center’s Education and Community Program is pleased to announce student and teacher tickets are available for this performance. Limited availability. Limited to two tickets per person with valid student/teacher ID.
Student and Teacher tickets available in advance: Tickets are $17.55 for Orange seats on seating map. Price will update after Student/Teacher ticket is added to the cart. Ticket purchasers must pick up their tickets at Will Call the night of the performance.
Click here to sign up for education emails, including those regarding our student and teacher ticket program.
Please note that for this performance online purchases have a limit of eight (8) tickets per customer. To purchase additional tickets or to inquire about group sales, please contact the ticket office directly at (843) 242-3099.