Audiobooks narrated by Jon Meacham

The Call to Serve: The Life of an American President, George Herbert Walker Bush: A Visual Biography

In honor of the one hundredth anniversary of George H. W. Bush's birth, this visually stunning chronicle features never-before-published photos and memories celebrating the forty-first president's vision of leadership as service to country-curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham. Lavishly illustrated, The Call to Serve is an intimate, illuminating portrait of the forty-first president, a man who was so much more than just his politics. In words and images-many found in a lifetime of scrapbooks kept by Barbara Pierce Bush-Jon Meacham brings George H. W. Bush vividly to life. From the values of integrity, empathy, and grace that Bush learned in childhood to his leadership at the highest levels in tumultuous times, the forty-first president embodied an ideal of service that warrants attention in our own divided time. Bush pursued a life of service to America through his heroic combat experience in the Pacific during World War II, his political rise in Texas, his serving as U.S. ambassador to the UN, his time as envoy to China and as director of the CIA, his tenure as Ronald Reagan's vice president, and his election as the forty-first president of the United States. Set against the background of America during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this book commemorates the legacy of a man who was far from perfect-he could be cutthroat on the campaign trail-but whose ambition was not an end unto itself. Bush's drive to succeed was, rather, a means to put the values of balance, patriotism, and respect for others into action in the political arena. Toward the end of Bush's life, the forty-fourth president, Barack Obama, said that Bush put the country first "both before he was president, while he was president, and ever since." Featuring more than 450 photographs, Meacham's introduction and commentary throughout, and narration drawn from his biography of George H. W. Bush, Destiny and Power, this is an essential tribute to a uniquely American life.

Jon Meacham (Author), Jon Meacham (Narrator)

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Character Matters: And Other Life Lessons from George Herbert Walker Bush

Former Chief of Staff to President George H.W. Bush and New York Times bestselling author of THE MAN I KNEW, Jean Becker shares touching and pivotal life lessons from a leader that left a mark on people's hearts and souls. As America heads into what promises to be a tumultuous 2024 presidential election year, Character Matters will be a good reminder of the importance of character when defining true leadership. Colleagues, friends, and family will share their often very personal stories of what they learned from watching and listening to President Bush, including former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Secretary of State James A. Baker; stand-up comedian Dana Carvey; "Queen of Country" star Reba McEntire; American columnist for The New York Times Maureen Dowd; American novelist Brad Meltzer; presidential biographer Jon Meacham; former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major; former Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; the Oak Ridge Boys and best-selling author Christopher Buckley; and of course his grandchildren. Character Matters will illustrate how George Bush never stopped showing us the way to lead by example.

Jean Becker (Author), Allan Robertson, Barbara Benjamin-Creel, Cynthia Barrett, Dan Quayle, George Dvorsky, James Baker, James Edward Thomas, Jamie Renell, Jean Becker, Jon Meacham, TBD, Widdi Turner (Narrator)

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And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how-and why-he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America. "In his captivating new book, Jon Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time."-Henry Louis Gates, Jr. A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents-a remote icon-or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln-an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln's story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.

Jon Meacham (Author), Jon Meacham (Narrator)

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The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER The capstone book in a trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Lead and The American Story and host of Bloomberg TV's The David Rubenstein Show—American icons and historians on the ever-evolving American experiment, featuring Ken Burns, Madeleine Albright, Wynton Marsalis, Billie Jean King, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and many more. In this lively collection of conversations—the third in a series from David Rubenstein—some of our nations' greatest minds explore the inspiring story of America as a grand experiment in democracy, culture, innovation, and ideas. -Jill Lepore on the promise of America -Madeleine Albright on the American immigrant -Ken Burns on war -Henry Louis Gates Jr. on reconstruction -Elaine Weiss on suffrage -John Meacham on civil rights -Walter Isaacson on innovation -David McCullough on the Wright Brothers -John Barry on pandemics and public health -Wynton Marsalis on music -Billie Jean King on sports -Rita Moreno on film Exploring the diverse make-up of our country's DNA through interviews with Pulitzer Prize–winning historians, diplomats, music legends, and sports giants, The American Experiment captures the dynamic arc of a young country reinventing itself in real-time. Through these enlightening conversations, the American spirit comes alive, revealing the setbacks, suffering, invention, ingenuity, and social movements that continue to shape our vision of what America is—and what it can be.

David M. Rubenstein (Author), Billie Jean King, David M. Rubenstein, Jon Meacham, Ken Burns, Madeleine Albright, Rita Moreno, Wynton Marsalis (Narrator)

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His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

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.

Jon Meacham (Author), Jd Jackson, Jon Meacham (Narrator)

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The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham explores the seven last sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, combining rich historical and theological insights to reflect on the true heart of the Christian story. For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross. Beginning with "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" and ending with "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus's message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus's final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world. Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.

Jon Meacham (Author), Jon Meacham (Narrator)

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The Impeachment Report: The House Intelligence Committee's Report on Its Investigation into Donald T

The official report from the House Intelligence Committee on Donald Trump's secret pressure campaign against Ukraine, featuring an exclusive introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and biographer Jon Meacham For only the fourth time in American history, the House of Representatives has conducted an impeachment inquiry into a sitting United States president. This landmark document details the findings of the House Intelligence Committee's historic investigation of whether President Donald J. Trump committed impeachable offenses when he sought to have Ukraine announce investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Penetrating a dense web of connected activity by the president, his ambassador Gordon Sondland, his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani, and many others, these pages offer a damning, blow-by-blow account of the president's attempts to "use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election" and his subsequent attempts to obstruct the House investigation into his actions. Published here with an introduction offering critical context from bestselling presidential historian Jon Meacham, The Impeachment Report is necessary reading for every American concerned about the fate of our democracy.

The House Intelligence Committee (Author), Brittany Pressley, Cassandra Campbell, Jon Meacham, P.J. Ochlan, Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

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The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear. Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the "better angels of our nature" have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer Joseph N. Welch, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. He writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women's rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson's crusade against Jim Crow. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear-a struggle that continues even now. While the American story has not always-or even often-been heroic, we have been sustained by a belief in progress even in the gloomiest of times. In this inspiring book, Meacham reassures us, "The good news is that we have come through such darkness before"-as, time and again, Lincoln's better angels have found a way to prevail. Praise for The Soul of America "Meacham has become one of America's most earnest and thoughtful biographers and historians. . . . Meacham gives readers a long-term perspective on American history and a reason to believe the soul of America is ultimately one of kindness and caring, not rancor and paranoia. Finally, Meacham provides advice to find our better angels-enter the arena, resist tribalism, respect facts and deploy reason, find a critical balance and keep history in mind. He's provided a great way to do it."-USA Today "This is a brilliant, fascinating, timely, and above all profoundly important book."-Walter Isaacson

Jon Meacham (Author), Fred Sanders, Jon Meacham (Narrator)

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Courage Is Contagious: And Other Reasons to Be Grateful for Michelle Obama

A collection of essays celebrating the influential former first lady, by an array of acclaimed contributors and with a foreword by Lena Dunham Michelle Obama's legacy transcends categorization. Mrs. Obama was not only our first black first lady; she was President Obama's equal partner in marriage and parenthood and a tireless advocate for women's rights, education, healthy eating, and exercise. Her genre-busting personal style encouraged others to speak, to engage, even to dress as they wished. In an extension of his popular T, The New York Times Style Magazine feature, Nick Haramis has assembled nineteen essays from prizewinning writers, Hollywood stars, and political leaders-all of whom have been moved and influenced by Mrs. Obama's extraordinary example of grace in power. Here are original testimonials from Gloria Steinem, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alice Waters, and Charlamagne tha God, among others. Presidential biographer Jon Meacham supplies historical perspective. Actress Tracee Ellis Ross suggests that Mrs. Obama "provided an antidote to all the false representations of black women that have inundated us for centuries." Anna Wintour and designer Jason Wu celebrate the former first lady's impact as an international fashion icon. Two ninth-grade girls-one in training to be a boxer-talk about how Mrs. Obama has emboldened them to be themselves. Here are some of the many facets of Michelle Obama as she continues to inspire us, a stirring reminder that the best of America once lived in the White House, embodied in one authentic, inclusive, and courageous woman. Advance praise for Courage Is Contagious "Courage Is Contagious reminds us of the fortitude, brilliance, grace, humility, compassion, and humor of a woman we were so crazy lucky to have serve as first lady. This is an exceptional celebration of a most exceptional American."-J.J. Abrams "The first lady planted a powerful new knowledge inside of each of us. When you read this book you realize it's still in there and always will be."-Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man and No One Belongs Here More Than You "The diversity of the voices in Courage Is Contagious captures perfectly why Michelle Obama is so remarkable. If we can all see our best selves in her so vividly, how can we really be that different from each other? This glorious little book will give you goosebumps as it takes you on a journey celebrating one of the most important people alive."-iO Tillett Wright, author of Darling Days

Jenni Konner, Lena Dunham, Nick Haramis (Author), Alice Waters, Charlamagne Tha God, Gabourey Sidibe, Gloria Steinem, Issa Rae, Janet Mock, Jon Meacham, Lena Dunham, Nick Haramis, Patton Oswalt, Rashida Jones, Various, Various Authors (Narrator)

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Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review - The Washington Post - Entertainment Weekly - The Seattle Times - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Bloomberg Businessweek In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize - winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jeffersons genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power. Thomas Jefferson hated confrontation, and yet his understanding of power and of human nature enabled him to move men and to marshal ideas, to learn from his mistakes, and to prevail. Passionate about many things - women, his family, books, science, architecture, gardens, friends, Monticello, and Paris - Jefferson loved America most, and he strove over and over again, despite fierce opposition, to realize his vision: the creation, survival, and success of popular government in America. Jon Meacham lets us see Jeffersons world as Jefferson himself saw it, and to appreciate how Jefferson found the means to endure and win in the face of rife partisan division, economic uncertainty, and external threat. Drawing on archives in the United States, England, and France, as well as unpublished Jefferson presidential papers, Meacham presents Jefferson as the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps in all of American history. The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity - and the genius of the new nation - lay in the possibility of progress, of discovering the undiscovered and seeking the unknown. From the writing of the Declaration of Independence to elegant dinners in Paris and in the Presidents House; from political maneuverings in the boardinghouses and legislative halls of Philadelphia and New York to the infant capital on the Potomac; from his complicated life at Monticello, his breathtaking house and plantation in Virginia, to the creation of the University of Virginia, Jefferson was central to the age. Here too is the personal Jefferson, a man of appetite, sensuality, and passion. The Jefferson story resonates today not least because he led his nation through ferocious partisanship and cultural warfare amid economic change and external threats, and also because he embodies an eternal drama, the struggle of the leadership of a nation to achieve greatness in a difficult and confounding world. Praise for Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "This is probably the best single-volume biography of Jefferson ever written." - Gordon S. Wood "A big, grand, absorbing exploration of not just Jefferson and his role in history but also Jefferson the man, humanized as never before." - Entertainment Weekly "[Meacham] captures who Jefferson was, not just as a statesman but as a man. . . . By the end of the book . . . the reader is likely to feel as if he is losing a dear friend. . . . [An] absorbing tale." - The Christian Science Monitor "This terrific book allows us to see the political genius of Thomas Jefferson better than we have ever seen it before. In these endlessly fascinating pages, Jefferson emerges with such vitality that it seems as if he might still be alive today." - Doris Kearns GoodwinFrom the Hardcover edition.

Jon Meacham (Author), Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Jon Meacham