The Soul of America

(The battle for our better angels) By; Jon Meacham Jon Meacham is an outstanding researcher and writer. He has written a number of books for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. This book was published in 2018 and was offered as a program at OLLI this summer which I attended. I am going to list the Chapters with a short synopsis contained therein. TO HOPE RATHER THAN TO FEAR “This book is a portrait of hours in which the politics of fear were prevalent-a reminder that periods of public dispiritedness are not new and a reassurance that they are survivable. In the best of moments, witness, protest and resistance can intersect with the leadership of an American president to lift us to higher ground. Progress in American life, as we will see, has been slow, painful, bloody, and tragic. Yet the journey has gone on and proceeds even now.” THE CONFIDENCE OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE This section starts with the confidence the founders had in electing George Washington as our first president. The fear was of a president overwhelming Congress. It explores the first president from the common man, Andrew Jackson. Prior to him they had all been from the original States. Then Abraham Lincoln and how he took us step by step towards freeing the slaves. Had the South re-united in the union they would have kept their slaves except not in new States being created? He follows with Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R and ends with Lyndon Johnson finishing the Civil Rights issue in 1964 and 1965. THE LONG SHADOW OF APPROMATTOX This chapter covers the hundred years after the Civil War, the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan and keeping the former slaves in near bondage. This was a truly sad chapter in our history. Many presidents attempted to resolve without success. WITH SOUL OF FLAME AND TEMPER OF STEEL This chapter is devoted to Teddy and his bully pulpit and progressive promise. A NEW AND GOOD THING IN THE WORLD Women finally are given the right to vote under President Wilson. The Klan is covered more in depth. THE CRISIS OF THE OLD ORDER The Great Depression, Huey Long, the New Deal, and America First. HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY? Making Everyone Middle Class, the G.I.Bill, McCarthyism and Modern Media WHAT THE HELL IS THE PRESIDENT FOR? Segregation Forever, King’s crusade, and L.B.J.in the Crucible. THE FIRST DUTY OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN This Chapter follows courageous steps taken by Presidents that they believed were necessary even if not popular. Truman, Reagan, Kennedy are mentioned prominently. The book ends as follows; “For all of our darker impulses, for all of our short comings, and for all of the dreams denied and deferred, the experiment begun so long ago, carried out so imperfectly, is worth the fight. There is, in fact, no struggle more important, and none nobler, than the one we wage in the service of those better angels who, however besieged, are always ready for battle”. This is an excellent book worthy of reading.