Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear.
Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer Joseph N. Welch, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. He writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Klu Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women’s rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson’s crusade against Jim Crow. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear – a struggle that continues even now.
While the American story has not always – or even often – been heroic, we have been sustained by a belief in progress even in the gloomiest of times. In this inspiring book, Meacham reassures us, “The good news is that we have come through such darkness before” – as, time and again, Lincoln’s better angels have found a way to prevail.
“The Soul of America” Starts Slowly with a Re-hash of Early American History. I Trudged On & Gained Some Wisdom I usually try to read best sellers the first day or two after release. “The Soul of America” is the exception, because it took me some time to get into it. I so wanted to love this book. Then, upon starting it, I nearly quit. The review that follows may help you decide if it is right for you.Some books on history tend to grab my interest on page one. Some books on history persuade me to discard them on page one. Few books on history that I find interesting and worth reading…
An Interesting Perspective I received a free Kindle copy of The Soul of America by Jon Meacham courtesy of Net Galley and Random House, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.I requested this book as I have read a number of books (all biographies) by the author and the description made it very interesting…
Good Medicine for Troubled Times Our current situation might seem dire, but Jon Meacham doesnât want us to give up just yet. His message in The Soul of America is that we do certainly have reason to be alarmed, but maybe not too alarmed. The demons we face today we have faced before and, more often than not, we have faced them down.By the âsoulâ of America, he doesnât want us to think in terms of a âspeculative and gauzyâ entity, but rather of âan immanent collection of convictions, dispositions, and sensitivities…