BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
(Available in Print: COPYRIGHT: 5/8/2018; PUBLISHER: Random House; 1st edition; ISBN: 978-0399589812; PAGES: 416; Unabridged.)

(Digital: Yes)

*Audiobook: COPYRIGHT: 5/10/2018; PUBLISHER: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; ISBN: 978-0525640066; DURATION: 11:01:34; Unabridged

(Film or tv: No.)

SERIES:
No

MAJOR CHARACTERS:
N/A

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
How I picked it: It was either a news show that recommended it, or an article I read.

What it’s about: Meachum discusses politics and the office of the US President, touching on historical events and the efforts, of politicians to enact legislation for or counter to the promise of the constitutional promise of liberty and justice for all citizens. He points out that leaders reflect the will and collective soul of those they lead, and that for the many steps backward, the trend is ever, on the whole---over time, forward and upward.

What I thought: Nicely researched and written. Inspiring.

AUTHOR:
Jon Meachum (5/20/1969):
From Amazon: “Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer. The author of the New York Times bestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, Franklin and Winston, and Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, he is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University, a contributing writer for The New York Times Book Review, and a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Meacham lives in Nashville with his wife and children.”

NARRATOR:
Fred Sanders
From Penguin Random House:
“Fred Sanders has been seen on Broadway (The Buddy Holly Story), in national tours (Driving Miss Daisy and Big River), and on TV, including Seinfeld, The West Wing, Will and Grace, Numb3rs, Titus, and Malcolm in the Middle. His films include Sea of Love, The Shadow, and the Oscar-nominated short Culture. A native New Yorker and Yale graduate, he now lives in LA.”
I feel that typically most authors DO need to let professional actors narrate their works, but I don’t find any flaws in the author’s Intro or conclusion. Never the less, Fred Sanders does a marvelous narration here.

GENRE:
Non-fiction; Biography; US History;

LOCATIONS:
United States

TIME FRAME:
Contemporary (2018)

SUBJECTS:
Politics; Civil Rights; Presidency


SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From the Introduction – To Hope Rather Than To Fear
"There is a rich history of discussion of what the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal, writing in 1944, called the American Creed: devotion to principles of liberty, of self-government, and of equal opportunity for all regardless of race, gender, religion, or nation of origin. Echoing Myrdal, the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., wrote, “The genius of America lies in its capacity to forge a single nation from peoples of remarkably diverse racial, religious, and ethnic origins….The American Creed envisages a nation composed of individuals making their own choices and accountable to themselves, not a nation based on inviolable ethnic communities….It is what all Americans should learn, because it is what binds all Americans together.”
I have chosen to consider the American soul more than the American Creed because there is a significant difference between professing adherence to a set of beliefs and acting upon them. The war between the ideal and the real, between what’s right and what’s convenient, between the larger good and personal interest is the contest that unfolds in the soul of every American. The creed of which Myrdal and Schlesinger and others have long spoken can find concrete expression only once individuals in the arena choose to side with the angels. That is a decision that must come from the soul—and sometimes the soul’s darker forces win out over its nobler ones. The message of Martin Luther King, Jr.—that we should be judged on the content of our character, not on the color of our skin—dwells in the American soul; so does the menace of the Ku Klux Klan. History hangs precariously in the balance between such extremes. Our fate is contingent upon which element—that of hope or that of fear—emerges triumphant.
Philosophically speaking, the soul is the vital center, the core, the heart, the essence of life. Heroes and martyrs have such a vital center; so do killers and haters. Socrates believed the soul was nothing less than the animating force of reality. “What is it that, present in a body, makes it living?” he asked in the Phaedo. The answer was brief, and epochal: “A soul.” In the second chapter of the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, the soul was life itself: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In the Greek New Testament, when Jesus says “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” the word for “life” could also be translated as “soul.””

RATING:
5 stars.

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
7-9-2022 to 7-28-2022 ( )

At 84, I lived through much of the last chapters. I am not sure I agree with the author about America's soul; I am uncertain that it has one. Glad I finished the book.

I am not a studious historian, so I can not verify the authenticity of much of this book. Meacham does have a vision he tries to express with stories of past presidents and their times. An appealing vision during this time in America. Still digesting. ( )

"To know what has come before is to be armed against despair."

Jon Meacham's words have provided a much-needed light the past couple of years, showing example after example of moral leadership, most always from flawed leaders who were able to transform into the person required by the moment. It is a case not only for moral leadership at the top but from the electorate where success "requires innumerable acts of citizenship and private grace." Part of a much needed conversation about what a Representative Democracy requires in order to live up to the ideas expressed at the country's beginning that still remain to be realized. ( )

A book every American should read! ( )