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| America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story |  | Author: Bruce Feiler
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $26.99
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Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 21,644
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1St Edition
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0060574887
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780060574888
ASIN: 0060574887
Publication Date: October 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Book Description The exodus story is America's story. Moses is our real founding father. The pilgrims quoted his story. Franklin and Jefferson proposed he appear on the U.S. seal. Washington and Lincoln were called his incarnations. The Statue of Liberty and Superman were molded in his image. Martin Luther King, Jr., invoked him the night before he died. Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama cited him as inspiration. For four hundred years, one figure inspired more Americans than any other. His name is Moses. In this groundbreaking book, New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler travels through touchstones in American history and traces the biblical prophet's influence from the Mayflower through today. He visits the island where the pilgrims spent their first Sabbath, climbs the bell tower where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses, retraces the Underground Railroad where "Go Down, Moses" was the national anthem of slaves, and dons the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments. "Even a cursory review of American history indicates that Moses has emboldened leaders of all stripes," Feiler writes, "patriot and loyalist, slave and master, Jew and Christian. Could the persistence of his story serve as a reminder of our shared national values? Could he serve as a unifying force in a disunifying time? If Moses could split the Red Sea, could he unsplit America?" One part adventure story, one part literary detective story, one part exploration of faith in contemporary life, America's Prophet takes readers through the landmarks of America's narrative—from Gettysburg to Selma, the Silver Screen to the Oval Office—to understand how Moses has shaped the nation's character. Meticulously researched and highly readable, America's Prophet is a thrilling, original work of history that will forever change how we view America, our faith, and our future. Photographs from America's Prophet
(Click to See Full Image)  |  |  |  | The Hebrew Letter "Bet"
“In every generation one should regard oneself as though he had come out of Egypt.” The large letter “bet” contains the word “bad” and images of ancient Egypt at top and Nazi concentration camps at bottom. Drawing by Yosef Dov Sheinson from A Survivors’ Haggadah. (Courtesy of The Jewish Publication Society) | Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., in a never-before-published photograph, delivering his sermon “The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore” at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, New York, May 17, 1956, during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (Courtesy of the Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine) | Liberty Enlightening the World
With ships and New York Harbor in the background. Lithograph published by Currier & Ives, c. 1886. (Courtesy of The Library of Congress) | The Great Seal of the United States
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson’s proposal for the Great Seal of the United States, as drawn by Benson J. Lossing for Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, July 1856. (Courtesy of The Library of Congress) |
Product Description
The exodus story is America's story. Moses is our real founding father. In this groundbreaking book, New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler travels through touchstones in American history and traces the biblical prophet's influence from the Mayflower through today. Feiler visits the island where the pilgrims spent their first Sabbath, climbs the bell tower where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses, retraces the Underground Railroad where "Go Down, Moses" was the national anthem of slaves, and dons the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments. One part adventure story, one part literary detective story, one part exploration of faith in contemporary life, America's Prophet takes readers from Gettysburg to Selma, the Silver Screen to the Oval Office, to understand how Moses shaped the nation's character. America's Prophet is a thrilling original work of history that will forever change how we view America, our faith and our future.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 54
 Moses in American Memory October 5, 2009
George P. Wood (Springfield, MO)
42 out of 44 found this review helpful
What do the Puritans, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, the Statue of Liberty, Cecil B. DeMille, and Martin Luther King Jr. have in common?
Moses.
In America's Prophet, Bruce Feiler reveals the Mosaic thread that weaves its way through the tapestry of American history. Along the way, we see a Jewish history becoming the American story becoming a universal narrative of hope. The book is utterly engrossing, and I recommend it highly.
The American appropriation of Moses begins with the Puritans. They viewed King James as Pharaoh, themselves as the Children of Israel, and the New World as the Promised Land. But if the sailing of the Mayflower was their exodus, the signing of the Mayflower Compact was their Sinai. Moses was not only a liberator, he was a lawgiver. The twin Mosaic themes of freedom and responsibility recur again and again in the American story. George Washington, for example, both led his people out of British tyranny and into constitutional responsibility. Martin Luther King Jr. both led African Americans out of Jim Crow segregation and into the "beloved community."
The Moses narrative has spoken powerfully to the American people because, historically speaking, they have been nominally Christian and biblically literate. The Civil War was, in some ways, a theological dispute. Would Moses side with the abolitionists and lead the slaves in an Exodus toward freedom? Or would he side with the slaveholders, since the Sinai law accommodated slavery? Debates couldn't settle the question; only war could. And at the end of it, Abraham Lincoln was acclaimed as yet another Moses.
So was Martin Luther King Jr. who led the way for the full integration of African Americans into American society that the Civil War only inaugurated. And like Moses, who went only as far as Nebo and never made it into the Promised Land, King himself would never experience the substantial progress made on his dream after his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. But on the eve of his death, speaking at Mason Temple, he nevertheless said: "I have seen the promised land. And I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the promised land."
America was not just a Promised Land for African Americans. It was also a Promised Land for immigrants, many of them Jews fleeing eastern European pogroms, who sailed into New York Harbor under the watchful eye of Lady Liberty. Feiler points out the substantial Mosaic influence on even the architecture of this icon, but also through the words of Emma Lazarus' poem, "New Colossus."
In addition to the influence of the Mosaic narrative on politics, Feiler considers its influence in popular culture. Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston, was a Cold War battle cry, calling America to submit itself to God's will rather than Communist tyranny. Paramount studios even financed the placement of granite 10 Commandments monuments on courthouse lawns throughout America. One of them, in Austin, Texas, became the focus of a Supreme Court lawsuit. Two Jewish boys, Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster, incorporated Mosaic themes into their best-known superhero: Superman. And even earlier, at the start of the 20th Century, Bruce Barton turned both Jesus and Moses into a model entrepreneur and executive, respectively. The Metropolitan Casual Life Insurance Company published Moses, Persuader of Men, which described Moses as "one of the greatest salesmen and real-estate promotes that ever lived."
Why does Moses keep cropping up in American history (in ways both sublime and ridiculous)? In his conclusion, Feiler points to three factors. As already mentioned, the Moses narrative is one of both liberation and responsibility, of freedom from and freedom for. It is also a narrative of inclusion. As Feiler writes, "the Israelites' experience with oppression becomes the foundation for a host of Mosaic laws that mandate that God's people care for the poor, tend the sick, comfort the grieving, and welcome the hurting into their arms."
America is perpetually roiled by the place of religion in public culture. Feiler's book shows how the use of the biblical narrative of Moses has been put to use for good and bad in American history (or both at the same time, in the case of the Civil War)--but mostly for good. As our culture becomes more religiously diverse, one wonders whether the Moses narrative can accomplish some good still.
Outstanding February 5, 2010
Kenneth D. Roseman (Corpus Christi TX)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Feiler traces the uses to which the character Moses has been put during the entire American experience - from the Pilgrims to the Civil Rights movement. His prose is eminently readable and enjoyable, and his history is accurate. More impressive, his research strategies exceed the traditional techniques of library search; he goes into unusual places (like the crown of the Statue of Liberty or a home on the Ohio River that was a stop on the Underground Railroad) and emerges with novel and frequently amusing insights and anecdotes. This is a wonderful book that every American ought to read.
An unusual look at our history September 28, 2009
Robert R. Briggs (Santa Barbara, CA USA)
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
Once again, Bruce Feiler has done a remarkable job of taking us on a journey through a topic most authors would never think of pursuing. Who would ever think of Moses as being America's prophet? Yet, Feiler takes us from our very beginnings with the Pilgrims up to the present day. When he finishes his account there will be no doubt in your mind as to how influential Moses was to our country's foundation, moral thought and positive direction.
Many people have difficulty accepting our nation's Judeo-Christian roots yet I believe in reading this book you will see that input regardless of your religious beliefs.
The author takes a number of bench marks in our history and through some very good research shows us how each event ties into the life, teachings, and dreams of Moses. I think it helps to have some knowledge of the Bible to make Feiler's account more understandable. Yet, even without that, the reader can still see the tie in to each main character and event. No doubt, the story of Moses and his search for deliverance and freedom affected the Pilgrims, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and almost all of our presidents. Feiler expands on these few events and characters and how they drew upon the teachings and direction of Moses as he led his people to freedom, law and morality. This is an excellent account of history most of us never touch upon. I have to agree...Moses could be called America's Prophet.
A profoundly thought provoking take on Moses's influence in American politics and thought October 16, 2009
Todd Bartholomew (Atlanta, GA USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
"America's Prophet" is probably one of the most original and though provoking books in recent memory, falling clearly into the realm of history of ideas, philosophy, history of philosophy, and religion, but even those categories are far too limiting. Feiler's hypothesis is that Moses serves as America's prophet, the guiding spirit of the American experience and the driving force from colonial times to the present. Ponder that for a moment. Think of the Pilgrims, the Puritans, and the Cavaliers; all set out in search of the promised land, a sense of fulfillment and destiny, a land to reshape and refashion in their image. It certainly sounds biblical doesn't it? From Governor Winthrop's "Shining City on a Hill" to the present many American political and spiritual leaders have reverberated the ideas of Moses, the Exodus, the wandering in the desert, and deliverance into the Promised Land. Whether it is the early Mayflower passengers, fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or the American Civil War, the United States continuously echoes with refrains from Moses. Moses becomes the quintessential American touchstone, unifying force, and shared touchstone. The idea sounds a little farfetched until you start reading and then you realize the one continuing thread through American history is the recurring theme of Moses.
In many respects "America's Prophet" reminds me greatly of Louis Menand's wonderful The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America which won the Pulitzer Prize some years ago. Like Menand, Feiler is making some pretty large claims here, but if you can get past the usual complaints of "American Exceptionalism" that might likely arise, "America's Prophet" is VERY enjoyable and will certainly get you think about the influence the Mosaic passages from the Bible has had, and continues to have, on our nation. Rather than being hard to follow like many books on philosophy or the history of ideas, Feiler is easy to follow for the layman, and quite enjoyable as well as profoundly thought provoking!
Required Before Pesach January 4, 2010
Naomi (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was delighted that a book I learned about from Diane Rehm's interview December 22, 2009 with Bruce Feiler, is such an extraordinary read.
Well organized, so that each chapter could stand on its, with a personal narrative woven throughout, Feiler draws the major American cultural and historical events connected to Moses -- in Egypt, at Pesach, around the Golden Calf, and at Mt. Nebo. Particularly challenging to some will be the reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps because we are still so close to him so that living witnesses abound, and perhaps because, as Feiler notes, there is a considerable cultural mythologizing practice going on around the memory and meaning of MLK. For most of his other material, there is enough historical distance so that even those who disagree with his interpretations can, nonetheless, read, ponder, and go away being little disturbed.
He draws the Puritans close and the Beecher family even closer. He reenacts the midnight winter passage across the Ohio River and tries to live into the contemporary meaning-making around the Underground Railroad. There are, of course, many other cultural connections and claims made upon Moses; but Feiler beautifully focuses his lens on a handful of significant periods and events in American history.
I'll probably preach and teach from insights and facts crammed into this book for the next twenty years. I highly recommend this book for reflective reading, for group study, and for consideration in your family's or community's next iteration of the haggadah.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 54
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