The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

by Jon Meacham

4.7 (7,024)

4.7 stars from 7,024 reviews. One of the highest rated Nonfiction books we track.

402 pages~6.7 hr readPublished by Random HousePublished 2018-01-01

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Last checked: Jun 6, 2026

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Fans of these authors will like this...

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Perfect for you if...

  • You're exhausted by today's political division and want historical perspective on whether democracies actually recover from this stuff.
  • You admire Lincoln, FDR, or Truman and want to understand what made them act when the country seemed lost.
  • You believe in progress but need reminding that it wasn't inevitable. These stories will restore your faith that ordinary people changed everything.

Maybe not for you if...

  • You're looking for a partisan takedown of the other side. Meacham isn't interested in blame, only in how we moved forward.
  • You prefer fiction to history. This is a straight historical narrative, not a story with a plot arc.
  • You want solutions to today's problems. This book diagnoses the pattern but doesn't offer a roadmap for what comes next.

About this book

Jon Meacham examines critical periods in American history when hope overcame division and fear, offering perspective on contemporary partisan conflict. The book is not new to American politics; Meacham demonstrates how what Abraham Lincoln called the "better angels of our nature" have repeatedly prevailed. Meacham presents portraits of presidents including Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, alongside influential activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr., suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Joseph N. Welch. The book covers the Civil War and Reconstruction, anti-immigrant backlash during World War I and the Ku Klux Klan resurgence of the 1920s, the fight for women's rights, the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin, Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist witch-hunts, and Lyndon Johnson's campaign against Jim Crow. Each historical moment reflects a struggle between looking forward with hope or backward with fear. While the American story has not always been heroic, Meacham argues that belief in progress has sustained the nation through darkness.

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Free$8.00$15.99Jul '21Feb '23Nov '23Feb '26
$1.99$15.99

Currently on sale at $1.99 — 88% off peak. Price has dropped 29 times over the last 5 years. Goes on sale roughly every 60 days. Typically stays discounted for 5 days.

Sales Rank

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#1,639#76,846#152,052Mar '18Apr '22Oct '23Jun '26

Currently #2,577 in the Kindle store — a top-10K bestseller.

Rating & Reviews

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4.0★4.5★5.0★May '23Dec '23Apr '24May '26RatingReviews

Currently 4.7★ from 7,024 reviews

Gaining approximately 11 new reviews per month. Rating has remained stable at 4.7 over the tracking period.

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Free$8.00$15.99Jul '21Feb '23Nov '23Feb '26PredictedJun '26

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This book is currently discounted at $1.99. It typically returns to around $15.99.

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Jon Meacham

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