Moyers on Democracy | 
|  | | | Title: | Moyers on Democracy | | Author: | Bill Moyers | | Publisher: | Doubleday | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 06 May, 2008 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0385523807 / 9780385523806 | | List Price: | $26.95 | | You Save: | $9.16 | | Amazon Price: | $17.79 | |
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Product Description
Bill Moyers on America today:
“Here in the first decade of the twenty-first century the story that becomes America’s dominant narrative will shape our collective imagination and our politics for a long time to come. In the searching of our souls demanded by this challenge . . . kindred spirits across the nation must confront the most fundamental liberal failure of the current era: the failure to embrace a moral vision of America based on the transcendent faith that human beings are more than the sum of their material appetites, our country is more than an economic machine, and freedom is not license but responsibility—the gift we have received and the legacy we must bequeath.
“Although our sojourn in life is brief, we are on a great journey. For those who came before us and for those who follow, our moral, political, and religious duty to make sure that this nation, which was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are equal under the law, is in good hands on our watch.”
—from “For America’s Sake”
People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America’s most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. “And one reason,” writes noted journalist Bill McKibben, “is that Moyers pulls no punches. His understanding of America’s history is at least as deep as his understanding of Christian tradition, which is an integral part of his background . . . With his feet firmly planted in the deepest American traditions, Bill Moyers is helping to keep alive an oratorical tradition that is fading after two centuries. Trained by his career in broadcasting, he writes for the ear, his cadences and his repetitions timed to bring an audience to full realization of its role and its power.”
And that is the message of this book. Moyers on Democracy collects many of Bill Moyers’s most moving statements to connect the dots on what is happening to our country—the twinned growth of private wealth and public squalor, the assault on our Constitution, the undermining of the electoral process, the accelerating class war against ordinary (and vulnerable) Americans inherent in the growth of economic inequality, the dangers of an imperial executive, the attack on the independence of the press, the despoiling of the earth we share as our common gift—and to rekindle the reader’s conviction that “the gravediggers of democracy will not have the last word.” Richly insightful and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential reading in this fateful presidential year.
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Customer Reviews:
• Bill Moyers, Our National Treasure 03 July, 2008
Title Moyers on Democracy
Author
Bill Moyers
Rating *****
Tags democracy, politics, religion, civil rights, speeches
This is a collection of Moyer's speeches over many years that touch on the subject of democracy. If I could, I'd give a copy to everyone in the world to read. Forget Nicholas Cage movies, Bill Moyers is THE National Treasure.
Mr. Moyers probably doesn't believe in reincarnation - though he would respect my right to do so - but I think in one of his previous lives he must have been a bard, and in another one of those court jesters who was the only person to tell the king the truth. For he has both the journalistic integrity to be dedicated to finding the truth and to sharing it with the public. The speech he gave on Hubert Humphrey is one of the best pieces of writing, fiction or non-fiction, I've ever read in my life, and many of the other pieces are of similar quality.
It is hard to give a sense of the book, because it wanders many places in talking about democracy. There are obituaries here, to such people as Barbara Jordan, William Sloane Coffin, and Fred Friendly. There is a commencement address. Issues of media, politics, and religion are discussed. And always, Moyers gives us history, often history of the relatively unknown and their struggles to be free. It is an inspirational book, one that sets the mind alight to preserve and restore freedom and its handmaiden, responsibility.
Publication Doubleday (2008), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication date 2008
ISBN 0385523807 / 9780385523806
- Reviewed by customer ID: AKM73MKWXF5NS
• Red Meat 17 August, 2008
Moyer's is the epitome of what's wrong with modern journalism: leftist ideologues shaping current events to fit their agenda. He tries to take the wooden spoon to Rush Limbaugh's behind as some kind of curse on humanity, while Rush is 100% upfront about what his agenda is people like Moyer try to pass themselves off as unbiased, non-agenda driven truth-sayers. And Rush as a nag, please, Moyers lives off the red meat of telling people what's wrong with this country. There's seemingly never any good in this country other than the capability of maintaining the lofty Utopian dream Moyers has in his head.
And that's where a good chuckle comes in when he starts talking of personal responsibility. Is it the personal responsibility of taking charge of your own path in life, or, taking personal responsibility for everything that the government hasn't relieved you of under the nanny state that he so desires.
Moyers believes the Bush administration has eroded the foundations of the republic. And Bush has been far from perfect, but bet the farm that the Founding Fathers would be much more in line with Bush's vision of America than they would Moyers.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AXF51T1ASSC5R
• Moyers On Democracy 12 July, 2008
Bill Moyers has a clear insight to many of our countries urgent problems and the causes of them. This book is a fantastic read. Worth the money! I bought a second copy to pass around.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A15RU9OTWMGLFA
• The Call For Truth 29 July, 2008
Bill Moyers writes with passion and outrage about the current state of affairs in America. The speeches in this book were given over a period of years from 1987 to 2007. Each speech is introduced with a current comment. Unfortunately the issues addressed haven't changed with time other than being more in need of change.
My favorite speeches were the eulogies which he was asked to give for people he came to know and greatly admire - Lady Bird Johnson, Barbara Jordan, William Sloan Coffin, and Fred Friendly. Moyers sums up their lives and greatly honors them with his words.
Of Barbara Jordan:"The founders would have been lucky to have had her in that Constitutional Convention. If she had been present, it would have taken far less time for Barbara Jordan to be recognized as a whole person in the sight of the law, or for this country to fulfill its promise.
As it is, the good fortune has been yours and mine. Just when we despaired of finding a hero, she showed up, to give the sign of democracy."
- Reviewed by customer ID: A9L1JTFE26GLN
• Moyers Rises High Over Party Politics 25 October, 2008
Moyers rises high over party politics as he salutes wide-ranging, even argumentative conversation, saying "you stand up for your country when you stand up to the government." He encourages each of us to state our own views strongly, not only to get out more deeply held feelings, but also to stake our claims as individuals - "Talking with people who agree with you is like jogging in a cul-de-sac". Moyers thinks we should follow the trail of money from lobbyists to laws than benefit only the few. Moyers wants media, even or especially NPR, to report more in-depth stories about real people, the working and middle classes and their daily struggles. We should not, for example, consider a news story balanced just because it has a Democrat quoted and a Republican quoted, but rather if it does that AND provides historical and economic context. We shouldn't be describing an escalation of the war in Iraq as a "surge - as if it were a current of electricity charging through a wire instead of blood spurting from a soldier's ruptured veins." Moyers is one of those people so important to our society, one who knows that issues are more important than party, that being open is more important than being right, that the right thing is not always the most profitable.
Reading for all of us.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A32A7H5SZK7M8F
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