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The Soul of America

The Battle for Our Better Angels

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The Soul of America

By: Jon Meacham
Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Jon Meacham
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About this listen

 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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.

“Gripping and inspiring, The Soul of America is Jon Meacham’s declaration of his faith in America.”—Newsday

ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, Southern Living

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 Ku 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. Americas Freedom & Security Political Science Politics & Government United States Roosevelt Family Franklin D Roosevelt War Social justice American History Socialism Liberalism Capitalism Abraham Lincoln Leadership Civil War Equality Dwight Eisenhower Civil rights Suffrage
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This is a riveting and very instructive historical narrative and very uplifting. It shows that no matter how bad things seem today, history shows that worse has been faced and overcome over time: a positive and uplifting message for the future and future generations!
My mood now is also 5* - thank you Jon Meacham!!
(And yes I believe 100% in the importance of history in instruction)

An excellent historical and politically relevant narrative

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Fascinating insight and nuance on the path to progress America has been on over the last 200+ years, told through excellent profiles of the presidents who've managed to move the country forward. Invaluable perspective with which to view the challenges the country faces today.

A way to understand America better

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This is an amazing book. As a non-american it gave me a glimpse of the politics and political minds of influential politicians from Independence to the present day. Never realised the massive role President Lyndon Johnson played in Civil Rights. Also, profoundly disappointed at so many proponents of segregation in the Democratic Party down the decades. My bad, my ignorance. Congratulations Jon Meacham, with minds like yours there is hope for USA.

A Must Read Book

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