Moyers on Democracy by Bill Moyers Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Moyers on Democracy
Book Review: A Model of Citizenship
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's the first sentence in Bill Moyers' new book: "Democracy in America is a series of narrow escapes, and we may be running out of luck." But America is lucky to have Bill Moyers as a journalist, a public intellectual and a significant voice in our national conversation: he is a wise and learned man, an active citizen and patriot in the deepest sense of those words, who holds penetrating honesty about the sad state of our Union in creative tension with commitment and hope. If you doubt any of this, read but one of the remarkable speeches gathered here: "The Meaning of Freedom," delivered at West Point. Moyers' reflections on the role of the military in a free society are a microcosm of the strengths one finds throughout this volume: historical grounding, practical realism, critical thought (also known as "speaking truth to power"), an appreciation of the ethical responsibilities and dilemmas of duty, and an uncompromising devotion to democratic values. In this book and in his own way of being in the world, Moyers embodies qualities we all need to cultivate if democracy in America is to keep having those narrow escapes.Book Review: A reminder of the best qualities of America
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the great qualities of America is its conscience, sometimes known as that quiet but reasoned internal voice which arises when one is otherwise having a great time.
Moyers is an eloquent voice of that conscience, a clear and positive contrast to narcissist negative nagging typified by Rush Limbaugh. Nags are always pessimistic; conscience encourges one to be better. In the best of times, as in the worst of times, Americans share an optimism they can improve themselves and their society.
Nags have a purpose, if you like "boss others around" attitudes.
Conscience is a small quiet voice of personal responsibility, challenge and constructive incentives. America is a land of boundless excess; after the ruin of the Civil War, it took only 40 years to become the world's richest and most powerful nation. Andrew Carnegie typified the success of excess; he created a dynamic modern steel industry, then the world's finest public library system.
Moyers made his early contributions in politics. Instead of acquiring a personal fortune, he became a founder of the Peace Corps, one of the lasting elements of American compassion. He then turned to "the library function", providing people with information.
Unlike the compulsive nature of moral nags, no one is forced to read a book and no one is forced to listen to Moyers. Instead, the strength of both is intelligent acceptance by the community. Don't be put off by the cover photo of Moyers; he looks like a nag, but he reads like an inspiration.
This book offers some of the best of Moyers over the past 20 years. It is a collection of gems to remind us the best qualities of America are not the politics of bitterness, the greed of selfishness or the pessimism of dismal doom.
Would America be better without Limbaugh? Perhaps not.
It is better because of Moyers. The greatness of America is its diversity of ideas. Moyers offers some of the best, and this book is a reminder of the success of decency in a world that sometimes seems to be utterly mad, selfish and foolish.
Book Review: An Essential Voice
Summary: 5 Stars
I enthusiastically nominate "Moyers On Democracy" as an outstanding book for 2008. This book laid a hasty hand on my cynicism about government in the introduction when he wrote that books like this one are viewed with suspicion by media moguls. They have "decided that uncovering the inner workings of public and private power is boring and will drive viewers and readers away to greener pastures of pablum." You've got me, Bill! So I began to read. And he didn't disappoint. If there is any book that will focus a fierce searchlight on the deals related to all the political battles and scandals that are engaging us in this present time then this is one.
Each of his essays and speeches begins with insightful musings and personal reflections from his years growing up in Texas with a father who was a devotee of FDR, continue with his flirtations with ministry, describe his time with Lyndon Johnson as senator and president, include his forage into the Peace Corps, embrace his years as publisher and news analyst and crown his career as producer of public television's groundbreaking series such as "The Power of Myth" with Joseph Campbell.
Here we have potent examples of both the breadth of his interest and the depth of his probing analysis of the issues of democracy. For example, no other journalist, to my knowledge, has had the audacious courage (or maybe foolhardiness!) to give a lecture at the United States Military Academy that quotes James Madison's words, "In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department," then goes on to say, "Twice in forty years we have now gone to war paying only lip service to those warnings; the first war was lost, the second is a bloody debacle, and both rank among the great blunders in our history. It is impossible for soldiers to sustain in the field what cannot be justified in the Constitution; asking them to do so puts America at war with itself. So when the vice president of the United States says it doesn't matter what the people think, he and the president intend to prosecute the war anyway, he is committing heresy against the fundamental tenets of the American political order." Yet, even then, he concludes by saying to the graduating class, "I salute your dedication to America and I wish all of you good luck."
His eulogies for Lady Bird Johnson, Bill Coffin, Barbara Jordan and Fred Friendly provide a rare glimpse into his heart and reveal the genuine compassion of a sensitive and thoughtful human being. I was moved by simply reading them.
Still, for me, I have found his lectures on "Money and Politics" and "The Fight For Public Broadcasting" representative of the best journalism being practiced today. With the rare skill honed by his years of investigative prowess he describes Bush's Washington. Jack Abramoff's ties to Karl Rove and bribery and the scandals of Tom Delay's money laundering are described with honesty as well as the finesse of this seasoned journalist. Yet, his speech to the National Conference for Media Reform in which he recounts the saga of the attempted coup of public broadcasting by Bush's administration is the most gripping and convincing of anything else in this book. The speech is spiced with the tale of those who want "to squelch and punish journalists who tell the stories that make princes and priests uncomfortable." He asserts, "They are the apologists for the people in power. I mean the people who are hollowing out middle-class security even as they enlist the sons and daughters of the working class in a war started under false pretenses. I mean the people who turn faith-based initiatives into a slush fund and encourage the pious to look heavenward and pray so as not to see the long arm of privilege and power picking their pockets. I mean the people who would discredit dissent and present their ideology as the official view of reality from which any deviation becomes unpatriotic heresy." He sets his scathing words down again for an administration that has refused to listen. Bush has bragged that he doesn't read newspapers. I doubt that he will read this book but he would profit from it if he would read and heed. Read this book. "Moyers On Democracy" is a must!!!
Book Review: Bill Moyers on Democracy
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure if this would be a fair review or not as I am very much an admirer of Bill Moyers, but I believe that he writes with truth being his objective and I think that is such a rare quality these days, so of course I would recommend this book very highly.
Book Review: Bill Moyers, our National Treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
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