The Soul of America
By Jon Meacham
This week's book was the last book of 2019 for my book group. I had been dreading reading it not because it is poorly written, but because I don't really go out of my way to read history books. The book chronicles the United States from its birth to more recent times. It focused on different presidents and different turning points. Some of the most important things that were covered were the birth of America, the Civil War, women's rights, the Civil Rights Movement and the KKK.
According to the book, fear drives us either to change from what we don't like or turn and hide. It seems that every thirty years, our country goes through a very conservative period. We as a nation make great strives, and then we take a step back.
I did find it interesting that the book covered that the President has to make the right choice for the country, even if it isn't their own personal opinion. The President of the United States of America according to the book needs to be the moral compass of the country. Washington could have been made king; the way he ran this new country as the first President was very important. If he would have taken a third term or been some power hungry man, we as Americans would be in a much different country. When John F. Kennedy was running for President, he made it clear that he was for the American people and wasn't just going to be listening to the Pope as our first Catholic president. Also JFK wanted the Civil Rights Movement but didn't think it could be done at the time, where after he was assassinated, Johnson could step up and make major strives for equal rights. President Lincoln wasn't for ending slavery per se, but he really wanted to reunite the country during the Civil War.
The book was a good reminder that the country was literally divided and people were killing each other, yet we as a country always came back together. One man in my book group was even discussing that if Lincoln hadn't been killed that American might have reunited quicker because he was so well spoken, but I don't know if that's really true. Slave owners weren't going to jump on board of treating their former slaves like real people with rights. The book also brought up that the mindset of not liking African Americans, isn't just that white people don't think that African Americans were less than them, they just thought that white people were just better, hence White Supremacy, which is always scary.
Some of what I could relate to what is going on right now in our nation is that some things never change, people want everyone to speak English and that was happening to the immigrants from Italy and other countries over one hundred years ago. We are a young country and we are still trying to figure out what we are doing. We add things to our Constitution and keep trying to make it better. Like I said earlier, we had a Civil War and came back from that. It was interesting to learn that our country's Constitution is the longest running one even though your country is so young. Also our rights in this country are from God, not from the government. In some other countries, the government would dictate number of births and what your actual rights are (we have the Bill of Rights written for that sole purpose).
One of my friends from my book group said on Sunday, "Every book I read in this group makes me a better person. I may have not picked a book or would have ever read it, but it makes be a better person after I have finished." That's how I feel about this book. I'm glad I read it and I feel like I am more informed and better for it. Does this mean I am going to go out and pick up more history books? No. Would I recommend it, meh, maybe if you like history?
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