Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had been convinced that American has never seen anything like our current political and constitutional crisis before now, with the obvious exception of the Civil War. Jon Meacham has shown me otherwise. This book is a well-written historical narrative of the on-going struggle within our country over the issue of civil rights. Meacham begins his book with Abraham Lincoln and takes a quote from his first First Inaugural Address: "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." As the title of his book implies, each president has been challenged to search for the soul of America and seek the better angels. Meacham eloquently reminds us that there are times we have failed but inevitably the American people regroup, rethink, and, sometimes more slowly than hoped for, ultimately choose right over wrong. I have been enlightened by Meacham's history lesson and encouraged by his belief that hope will again bring this country together. Would that every American would take the time to read this book.