Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With this unique anthology, Pulitzer winner Meacham (And There Was Light) aims to inspire by spotlighting tense moments of political polarization and conflicting viewpoints throughout American history. He does this by juxtaposing progressive and conservative texts, such as those defending slavery and those arguing for its abolition. Canonical works like the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, Martin Luther King's "Promised Land" speech, the Declaration of the Rights of Women drafted at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, and Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus" are pitted against the likes of the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that upheld segregation and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephen's argument that slavery is morally good. These back-and-forths continue through the pro-peace and pro-war movements around both the Vietnam War and the "war on terror," and around 20th-century fights for women's rights, racial minority rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. While these documents are stirring and worthwhile, an astute reader already steeped in American progressive mythology will note that 20th-century battles and individuals that are less settled matters on the left get elided--there's no Milton Friedman, no Henry Kissinger, and no one directly opposing them. Still, there's much powerful thought to soak up here. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A panoramic collection of historical writing, illuminating America's evolving democracy and the dissent that drives it. Broad in scope yet vivid, this collection edited by Pulitzer Prize--winning historian Meacham (And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, 2022) represents a notable departure from his biographies. Here he curates a sweeping chronicle of American democracy's promises and betrayals. Drawing on speeches, letters, and landmark texts from the first representative assembly in 1619 to the present, Meacham places enduring milestones--the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, the Civil Rights Movement--alongside influential and less familiar voices, including investigative journalist Ida B. Wells, chronicling racial violence at the turn of the 20th century; labor leader Eugene V. Debs, decrying wartime suppression of dissent in 1918; and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, whose 1964 testimony at the Democratic National Convention exposed voter suppression and brutality in Mississippi. Meacham frames the collection as both an inheritance and a warning: "This anthology seeks to put our best and our worst before a divided and often dispirited nation--and to remind us that conscientious citizenship is essential to bringing out the more perfect Union envisioned in the Preamble to the Constitution," noting earlier that America "has had shining hours; it has also dwelt in darkness," underscoring that progress is neither linear nor guaranteed. The selections trace a chronological arc of reform, from Abigail Adams' 1776 plea to "Remember the Ladies" to Frederick Douglass' defiance of Dred Scott in the 1850s, to Theodore Parker's 1853 assertion that "the arc…bends towards justice," and to the civil rights era of the 1960s, where Hamer's testimony stands as vivid proof of democracy's ongoing struggle. By presenting the raw materials of U.S. history with context and moral clarity, Meacham helps readers understand the past and orient themselves in the ongoing fight for a "more perfect Union." Evocative and impeccably curated--reframing America's past to inform a more democratic and vigilant future. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
