His Truth Is Marching On

John Lewis and the Power of Hope

De: Jon Meacham, John Lewis

Narrado por: JD Jackson, Jon Meacham

An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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

A glimpse into an astonishing life

I have the three-volume graphic memoir by John Lewis, but this book fleshes out that story in ways that perhaps Rep. Lewis was too modest to do. The biography goes into great detail about John Lewis' faith in ways that might be off-putting to people who aren't in his faith tradition (and some might quibble with the characterization of John Lewis as a modern saint), but it really gives insight into where he got his moral strength and values. The stories of the arrests, the beatings and yes, the torture that he endured in the 1950s and 1960s are harrowing. It only made me admire him all the more. The biography ends with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. John Lewis' political career, which is kind of an anticlimax, is summed up in an epilogue and Representative Lewis gets the last word. The narration is slow, thoughtful, and perfect for this book. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about John Lewis, or who thought that they already knew what he accomplished when he was still a very young man.

Timely read

John Lewis died on July 17, 2020. This season, when powerful people continue to make laws to intentionally restrict voting rights, is the right time to read/listen to Jon Meaham's account of the part Lewis played in the pursuit of justice for all citizens.

One of John's. best

very , very informative, learned much about the American Negro and suffering.
Researched beautifully, Thanks

This should be required reading

In the midst of the BLM movement, hearing this account of a great activist during the Civil Rights movement in the mid-20th century is both sobering by how much work we still have to do to end racial inequality in America and a testimony to how far the country has come. With what’s going on today, I believe this is required reading to understand the March to freedom that has been going for so long.

important history you thought you knew

I believed that I was pretty up on the civil rights movement of the 60's but I was wrong. Meachem brings this period of history through the eyes of someone who was integral to the movement. Extremely well written and you will definitely come away with a greater appreciation of how it really was and how important Lewis was to our progress.