American gospel : [God, the founding fathers, and the making of a nation]

Format:

Audio disc

Title:

American gospel : [God, the founding fathers, and the making of a nation]

Author:

Meacham, Jon.

ISBN:

9780739334379

Publication Information:

New York, N.Y. : Random House Audio, ℗2006.

Physical Description:

6 audio discs (7 hr.) ; 4 3/4 in.

General Note:

Subtitle from container.

Unabridged.

Summary:

Jon Meacham tells the human story of how the Founding Fathers viewed faith, and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice. As Meacham shows, faith - meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen people - has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th.

Subject(s):

Religion and politics -- United States -- History.

Christianity and politics -- United States -- History.

National characteristics, American.

United States -- Religion -- History.

United States -- History -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Religion -- History.

United States -- History -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.

Genre:

Added Author:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	CD 322.1 MEACHAM	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From the New York Times bestselling author of Franklin and Winston comes a short history of God and faith in America. Unabridged. 5 CDs.

Summary

Author John Meacham reveals the significance of religion during the American Revolutionary War. Presenting religious attitudes and the evolution of spirituality in the American colonies, Meacham claims that the war was just as important to religious freedom as it was to fair representation in government.

Author Notes

Jon Meacham was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 20, 1969. He received a degree in English literature at the University of the South. He joined Newsweek as a writer in 1995. Three years later, at the age of 29, he was promoted to managing editor, supervising coverage of politics, international affairs, and breaking news. In 2006, he was promoted to editor at Newsweek. He is currently an executive editor at Random House.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House in 2009. His other works include Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. In 2001, he edited Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement. In 2013 his title Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power made The New York Times Best Seller List. In 2015 Meacham's title Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush made The New York Times Best Seller List. His most recent book is entitled The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels (2018).

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian and Newsweek editor Meacham's third book examines over 200 years of American history in its quest to prove the idea of religious tolerance, along with the separation of church and state, is "perhaps the most brilliant American success." Meacham's principal focus is on the founding fathers, and his insights into the religious leanings of Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Co. present a new way of considering the government they created. So it is that the religious right's attempts to reshape the Constitution and Declaration of Independence into advocating a state religion of Christianity are at odds with the spirit of religious freedom ("Our minds and hearts, as Jefferson wrote, are free to believe everything or nothing at all?and it is our duty to protect and perpetuate this sacred culture of freedom"). Meacham also argues for the presence of a public religion, as exemplified by the national motto, "In God We Trust," and other religious statements that can be found on currency, in governmental papers and in politicians' speeches. Subsequent chapters consider a wartime FDR and a Reagan who grew increasingly enamored of Armageddon. All are well-written, but none reach the immediacy and vigor of the chapters on the nation's birth. Two extensive appendices reprint early government documents and each president's inaugural bible verses. Meacham's remarkable grasp of the intricacies and achievements of a nascent nation is well worth the cover price, though his consideration of Reagan feels like that of an apologist. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal Review

Newsweek managing editor Meacham here holds that, despite the strong religious differences of the Founding Fathers, religion became a force for unity, not division; it shaped the Constitution and the nation without strangling it. This is quite an argument to make given the history chronicled. Quakers were at odds with Anglicans, and New Englanders engaged in witch trials while building a "City of God." Others massacred Indians. The Virginia charter provided for Christian mission but also for taking land and searching for gold. To boot, early settlers of that state purchased slaves. Meanwhile, deists Jefferson and Franklin looked at Jesus as the great moral teacher. The religious spirit was "more sectarian than ecumenical," the author maintains, yet it was recognized that a moral and religious force that God provided could and would serve as a uniting factor. Meacham provides a balanced account of this "American Gospel" as to how it was formed and how it is shaping our history down to such present-day challenges as holiday displays, prayer in schools, abortion, euthanasia, and gay rights. Highly recommended for all libraries.-George Westerlund, formerly with Providence P.L., Palmyra, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.