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Summary
Summary
The Peabody Award-winning journalist shares stories and insights into our country and the crises we face in an "eloquent selection of . . . commentaries" ( Publishers Weekly , starred review).
Millions of Americans have invited Bill Moyers into their homes over the years. With television programs covering topics from American history, politics, and religion to the role of media and the world of ideas, he has become one of America's most trusted journalists. Now Moyers presents, for the first time, a powerful statement of his own personal beliefs--political and moral. Combining illuminating forays into American history with candid comments on today's politics, Moyers delivers perceptive and trenchant insights into the American experience.
From his early years as a Texas journalist to his role as a founding organizer of the Peace Corps, top assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, publisher of Newsday , senior correspondent and analyst for CBS News , and producer of many of public television's groundbreaking series, Moyers has been actively engaged in some of the most volatile episodes of the past fifty years. Drawing from these experiences, he shares his unique understanding of American politics and an enduring faith in the nation's promise and potential. Whether reflecting on today's media climate, corporate scandals, or religious and political upheavals, Moyers on America recovers the hopes of the past to establish their relevance for the present.
"Not only a good reporter . . . a first-rate storyteller." -- The Boston Globe
Author Notes
Bill Moyers is the host of Now with Bill Moyers on PBS. He was one of the organizers of the Peace Corps, spokesperson for President Lyndon Johnson, publisher of Newsday, senior correspondent for CBS News, and producer of many of public television's groundbreaking series. He is the winner of more than 30 Emmy Awards
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
"I am a journalist but I am also a pilgrim," Moyers declares in this eloquent selection of his speeches and commentaries. Although these 20 pieces have been edited to resemble essays, their origin lends them a rousing urgency, as Moyers relates stories and insights in his personal journey from small-town Texas boyhood to eminent broadcast journalist. Whether he's extolling the virtues of participatory democracy based on the early 20th-century Progressive movement or lamenting recent evidence that democracy is on the auction block with politicians bought by special interests, Moyers's ability to communicate history, philosophy and personal experience simultaneously is impressive. His instinct for enlisting stories to get his message across appears throughout this collection, including tales from the years he worked for Lyndon Johnson (before and after Johnson became President). In a portrait of Johnson's political strengths and personal weaknesses, a less canny storyteller might leave out the telling anecdote about LBJ's integrating the Faculty Club of the University of Texas in 1964, but not Moyers. The same combination of candor, vividness and forthrightness animating his Johnson portrait is what gives such authority to Moyers's arguments that responsible journalism of unquestioned integrity is essential to our democratic process and that domination of news media by conglomerates, along with trends in celebrity-obsessed journalism, is undermining the freedom of the press. Moyers's wisdom, common sense and deeply felt principles should inspire and energize many readers in the very best way. (May 10) Forecast: A major media and advertising campaign should alert Moyers's huge audience to the unique appeal of this provocative yet always genial collection. New Press plans a 100,000-copy first printing, and publication coincides with Moyers's 70th birthday. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Award-winning journalist Moyers offers a thoughtful and caustic look at American politics. This first-time collection of Moyers' commentaries begins with his speech This Is Your Story. Pass It On, read by millions online and applauded for its insights into the troublesome trends in American democracy. Moyers powerfully and eloquently laments the increasing influence of the wealthy at the expense of the poor. In other essays, Moyers recalls a more progressive era in the U.S., when the government played an active role in protecting citizens, and reporters were more vigilant in their scrutiny of corruption. Reflecting on his personal beliefs and observations from his various perches as journalist, Peace Corps organizer, and top assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, Moyers offers a variety of penetrating views on the past 50 years of American politics. He laments the final fling of progressive politics in the Johnson administration and rails against heartless conservatism and corporate journalism, trends that he sees threatening the very essence of democracy. But amid the plethora of corporate scandals, shameless materialism, and religious and political chaos afoot in the nation, Moyers sees a battle to renew American democracy. A wide-ranging examination of American politics. --Vanessa Bush Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Moyers began his career in Texas writing for his hometown newspaper and then broadcasting for KTBC radio, a station owned by Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. After a significant interlude in politics helping organize the Peace Corps and serving as an assistant to President Johnson, he returned to broadcast journalism. This collection of speeches and commentaries highlights Moyers's love of America and hopes for democracy. Many of the essays are personal, such as the earliest piece from 1974, which recounts a weeklong road trip with his father on his 70th birthday (Moyers himself turned 70 this past June). The essay is no glorification of the good old days but a remembrance of the hardships of his father's life that ends with a positive note about the future. Moyers does not idealize America, either, but continues to exhort citizens to strive for a more perfect union. Public libraries and academic libraries with journalism programs should purchase this well-written collection. Judy Solberg, George Washington Univ. Libs., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Foreword | p. ix |
Editor's Note | p. xv |
Part 1 America Now | p. 1 |
This Is Your Story. Pass It On | p. 3 |
Which America Will We Be Now? | p. 23 |
One Year Later | p. 26 |
War Is War | p. 29 |
Crossing the Euphrates | p. 35 |
Part 2 The Soul of Democracy | p. 37 |
The Declaration in Our Times | p. 39 |
Many Faiths, One Nation | p. 47 |
The Soul of Democracy | p. 61 |
Democracy in Peril | p. 68 |
Wearing the Flag | p. 81 |
Part 3 The Media | p. 83 |
The Making of a Journalist | p. 85 |
Journalism and Democracy | p. 99 |
Countering the Bastard Muses | p. 107 |
The Fight of Our Lives | p. 123 |
Public Access in Peril | p. 127 |
Part 4 Looking Back | p. 151 |
Where the Jackrabbits Were | p. 153 |
Empty Nest | p. 157 |
Second Thoughts | p. 159 |
Good Friend | p. 181 |
Aging | p. 191 |