His Truth Is Marching On
John Lewis and the Power of Hope
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His Truth Is Marching On
Narrated by:
JD Jackson, Jon Meacham
Buy Now for $25.99
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Narrated by:
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JD Jackson
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Jon Meacham
About this listen
John Lewis, who at age twenty-five marched in Selma, Alabama, and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was a visionary and a man of faith. Drawing on decades of wide-ranging interviews with Lewis, Jon Meacham writes of how this great-grandson of a slave and son of an Alabama tenant farmer was inspired by the Bible and his teachers in nonviolence, Reverend James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr., to put his life on the line in the service of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” From an early age, Lewis learned that nonviolence was not only a tactic but a philosophy, a biblical imperative, and a transforming reality. At the age of four, Lewis, ambitious to become a minister, practiced by preaching to his family’s chickens. When his mother cooked one of the chickens, the boy refused to eat it—his first act, he wryly recalled, of nonviolent protest. Integral to Lewis’s commitment to bettering the nation was his faith in humanity and in God—and an unshakable belief in the power of hope.
Meacham calls Lewis “as important to the founding of a modern and multiethnic twentieth- and twenty-first-century America as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Samuel Adams were to the initial creation of the Republic itself in the eighteenth century.” A believer in the injunction that one should love one's neighbor as oneself, Lewis was arguably a saint in our time, risking limb and life to bear witness for the powerless in the face of the powerful. In many ways he brought a still-evolving nation closer to realizing its ideals, and his story offers inspiration and illumination for Americans today who are working for social and political change.
This audiobook includes a PDF of the book’s Appendix.
Critic Reviews
“A valuable discussion of an extraordinary man who deserves our everlasting admiration and gratitude.”—The Washington Post
“Meacham tells this story with his customary eloquence . . . a welcome reminder of the heroic sacrifices and remarkable achievements of those young radicals—20th-century America’s greatest generation.”—Eric Foner, The New York Times Book Review
“His Truth Is Marching On is well worth reading, especially for readers with an abiding interest in the intersection of religion and progressive politics . . . an inspiring book that comes at a time when the world desperately needs inspiration.”—NPR
“An elegant, moving portrait of a giant of post-1950 American history.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Meacham talks directly to the reader, his eyes burning, his voice calm but quaking with emotion. . . . Meacham takes the familiar story of the scars and bruises on John Lewis’ body as literally an embodiment of the struggles of the civil rights era, and brings alive with cinematic conviction the backstory of how specifically those blows came about.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“His Truth Is Marching On combines careful reporting, historic photographs, and detailed notes and appendices. But the book ultimately shines brightest as a story of how one man made a difference by believing in justice and offering hope for a nation in difficult times.”—Chapter 16
“Meacham tells this story with his customary eloquence . . . a welcome reminder of the heroic sacrifices and remarkable achievements of those young radicals—20th-century America’s greatest generation.”—Eric Foner, The New York Times Book Review
“His Truth Is Marching On is well worth reading, especially for readers with an abiding interest in the intersection of religion and progressive politics . . . an inspiring book that comes at a time when the world desperately needs inspiration.”—NPR
“An elegant, moving portrait of a giant of post-1950 American history.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Meacham talks directly to the reader, his eyes burning, his voice calm but quaking with emotion. . . . Meacham takes the familiar story of the scars and bruises on John Lewis’ body as literally an embodiment of the struggles of the civil rights era, and brings alive with cinematic conviction the backstory of how specifically those blows came about.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“His Truth Is Marching On combines careful reporting, historic photographs, and detailed notes and appendices. But the book ultimately shines brightest as a story of how one man made a difference by believing in justice and offering hope for a nation in difficult times.”—Chapter 16
How fortunate we were to have John Lewis on this earth as long as 80 years. A man from humble beginnings, of humble faith and with humble deeds his entire life. But don’t let that description fool you. The man lived boldly and with unapologetic convictions.
My favourite quote of his implores us the reader to “Make good trouble. Necessary trouble” and speak out when something is not just or not right.
The majority of the book focusses on his early life until 1968 but it would have been nice to have given due importance to his work as a legislator and wisened leader from his 30s until his 80th year.
I hold him with the same esteem as I do Gandhi, Mandela and Attenborough. We shall not live to see their like again.
Make Necessary Good Trouble
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