John Meacham's "The Soul of America"

The Soul of America by historian Jon Meacham is about events in the history of the United States, but it is also book for our times.  Published in 2018—in the midst of the Trump Administration—it looks at other times when our core beliefs were challenged in order to inform our lives today.  “The war between the ideal and the real,” he writes, “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 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” (p. 7). 

            He begins with a look back to when the Presidency was first defined during the debates that led to the Constitution.  Alexander Hamilton proposed that the president be elected for life. Others suggested that Congress should select the President.  Their trust in George Washington led them to a create an elected office as “an act of faith in the future and an educated wager on human character. From the start,” he writes, “Americans recognized the elasticity of the presidency and hoped for the best” (pp. 25-26). 

            Meacham goes on to take a fresh look at times when that hope was tested, starting with the Civil War and its aftermath—the Ku Klux Klan and Reconstruction.  He examines the rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivism as the Industrial Revolution matured and, with it, brought millions of immigrants into the nation and sparked new cultural tensions as the idea of America as a “melting pot” took hold.  He documents the rise of women’s suffrage movement in the early 20th century and the cultural conflicts that attended the Roaring Twenties. 

            A chapter on “The Crisis of the Old Order” looks at Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the challenge to Roosevelt’s vision led by Huey Long, as Fascism grew in Europe.  Meacham goes on to describe the anti-communist McCarthy movement reaction to Truman’s Civil Rights initiatives in fifties, and the ultimate successes of Civil Rights brought about by Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson.

            Meacham concludes with some thoughts on how the lessons of the past can help the nation survive crises that arose during the Trump administration but that are still with us today.  “How then,” he wrote in 2018, “in an hour of anxiety about the future of the country, at a time when a president of the United States appears determined to undermine the rule of law, a free, press, and the sense of hope essential to American life, can those with deep concerns about the nation’s future enlist on the side of the angels?” (p. 266).  He suggests five steps that all citizens can take:

·      ENTER THE ARENA – He urges all citizens to become politically engaged, noting, “. . . the paying of attention, the expressing of opinion, and the casting of ballots are foundational to living up to the obligations of citizenship in a republic” (p. 266).

·      RESIST TRIBALISM – Meacham quotes Jane Addams: “We know instinctively that if we grow contemptuous of our fellows and consciously limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people who we have previously decided to respect, we not only tremendously circumscribe our range of life, but limit the scope of our ethics” (p. 267).  Meacham adds, “Don’t let any single cable network or twitter feed tell you what to think” (p. 268).

·      RESPECT FACTS AND DEPLOY REASON—Meacham quotes Truman: “The dictators of the world say that if you tell a lie often enough, why, people will believe it.  Well if you tell the truth often enough, they’ll believe it and go along with you” (p. 268).

·       FIND A CRITICAL BALANCE – He notes that, “Being informed is more than knowing details and arguments.  It also entails being humble enough to recognize that only on the rarest of occasions does any single camp have a monopoly on virtue or on wisdom” (p.269).  This is one of the values of a free press.

·      KEEP HISTORY IN MIND – He argues that it is good to look back, as this book does, to see how other generations have responded to similar issues.  “To remember Joe McCarthy,” he notes, “. . . gives us a way to gauge demagoguery” (p.270).  The past also teaches us “that demagogues can only thrive when a substantial portion of the demos—the people—want him to” (p. 271).

The Soul of America brings important, but often little discussed, issues in our history to bear to help us understand where we are today as a nation and as a culture.   A great read.

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Meacham, John. The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels.  New York: Random House, 2018.