Do you think America has never seen such polarizing times as ours today? Pulitizer Prize winner Jon Meacham stands ready to correct you and then to enlist you in the struggle for America to choose the better path. In this work, starting with Abraham Lincoln, he traces how historically Americans fought over choices that today might seem taken for granted – like women’s suffrage, lynchings, the right to vote, and trumped-up charges of political treason. In so doing, he paints a vivid history of American progress and inspires us to continue in that vein today.
When looking at the news, it’s easy to understand struggles against bigotry, prejudice, and ignorance as “new.” However, Meacham shows this to be incorrect. He tells Lincoln’s tale in the Civil War, but reminds us this was only the beginning. In Reconstruction, Grant had to fight a resurgent Ku Klux Klan. Even when it seemed defeated as a relic of the nineteenth century, the KKK came back in the early twentieth century. Woodrow Wilson, for all his idealism, drug his feet on women’s suffrage and pursued racist policies. Harry Truman had to reconcile his home-state’s racist heritage with returning soldiers’ civil rights.
Meacham reminds us of the Red Scare of Joseph McCarthy, which had absolutely no factual basis. He further reminds us of all Lyndon Johnson overcame to protect the right of all to vote. He reminds us that a single word in a Civil Rights bill (“sex”) protects against so many forms of gender discrimination. He reminds us that the funeral for the murdered Charleston Nine occurred on the same day that the Supreme Court protected same-sex marriage. He shares all these struggles in such vivid detail that our struggles simply become a part of the larger story.
Without a doubt, Meacham’s view of history is progressive. Living in the American South (as I do), it’s easy to think that America has arrived and that all these struggles are simply in the past. By citing picturesque rhetoric that reminds of today’s news clips, Meacham allows us – indeed, forces us – to see ourselves as a part of a larger context. He makes it much, much harder to think that any prior time was an end to history. Indeed, as he makes clear in the conclusion, history is just beginning, and we must act to play our part.
This book, expansive and inspirational in its scope, speaks to a nation whose divisions have been rigorously exploited for political gain. It makes a case for the American people and not just for one party or ideology. Republicans are cited as much as Democrats for pointing to a more noble America, a “shining city upon a hill” as Reagan put it. American readers of all sorts and of all backgrounds can benefit from this rich tour through history. It can remind us of who we are so that we can navigate our future steps more wisely.
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
By Jon Meacham
Copyright (c) 2018
Random House Audio
ASIN B07BYCS41G
Audiobook
Genre: American History
www.amazon.com