The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER â€¢ Pulitzer Prizeâ€“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.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR â€¢ The Christian Science Monitor â€¢ 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 â€œbetter angels of our natureâ€ 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 womenâ€™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 Johnsonâ€™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 fearâ€”a struggle that continues even now.

While the American story has not alwaysâ€”or even oftenâ€”been heroic, we have been sustained by a belief in progress even in the gloomiest of times. In this inspiring book, Meacham reassures us,Â â€œThe good news is that we have come through such darkness beforeâ€â€”as, time and again, Lincolnâ€™s better angels have found a way to prevail.

Praise for The Soul of America

â€œBrilliant, fascinating, timely . . . With compelling narratives of past eras of strife and disenchantment, Meacham offers wisdom for our own time.â€â€”Walter Isaacson

â€œGripping and inspiring, The Soul of America is Jon Meachamâ€™s declaration of his faith in America.â€â€”Newsday

â€œMeacham gives readers a long-term perspective on American history and a reason to believe the soul of America is ultimately one of kindness and caring, not rancor and paranoia.â€â€”USA Today
Country USA
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2018-05-08
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2018-05-08
Format	Kindle eBook

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

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