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|  | Author: Bruce Feiler
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Book
List Price: $26.99
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as of 9/5/2010 05:36 CDT details
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Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 9780
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language), English (Published)
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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Showing reviews 51-54 of 54
 Moses as the Iconic American October 8, 2009
Stephen Elderbrock (Ottawa, Ohio)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
America's Moses offers a fascinating mix of American history, religion, and culture all woven together to bring new insights into the American character and spirit. Feiler explores how Moses and the Exodus story have been used by Americnas to describe some of the most crucial people, periods, and events in our history, from the landing of the pilgrims to the founding of the country to the Underground Railroad to immigration to the civil rights movement. You will learn amazing details about the Great Seal proposed by Franklin, Jefferson and Adams right after the writing of the Declaration of Independence; you will learn about Ripley, Ohio and its importance to the Underground Railroad; you will learn about the Statue of Liberty; you will even learn about Cecil B. Demille and the making of The Ten Commandments (both versions). All in one captivating book. Every major period of American history is discussed through the lens of the prophet Moses, right up to the present day, and instead of this watering down the story of Moses and the Exodus, it elevates it to even greater importance. In addition, the book is engaging and well-written and hard to put down. This is a "must-read," and I would highly, highly recommend it.
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.
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.
Fascinating Interesting and Informative September 22, 2009
MotherLodeBeth (Sierras of California)
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
Have loved the authors past books and really am enjoying this book and the history of Moses from the Jewish texts has played throughout history and in the founding of this country, be it the founding fathers who spoke or wrote of him, or his connection with George Washington and other Free Masons, or in more recent times, even Dr. Martin Luther King. Or how about the symbolism of the tablet in the hand of the Statue of Liberty?
Have loved the authors past books and really am enjoying this book and the history of Moses from the Jewish texts has played throughout history and in the founding of this country, be it the founding fathers who spoke or wrote of him, or his connection with George Washington and other Free Masons, or in more recent times, even Dr. Martin Luther King. Or how about the symbolism of the tablet in the hand of the Statue of Liberty?
Some interesting tid bits from this book.
Page 8. And when after sixty-six days on the Atlantic, they finally arrived at Cape Cod, they were brought to their knees in gratitude for safe passage through their own Red Sea. 'May our children rightly say,' Bradford wrote, echoing a famous passage in Deuteronomy , the fifth book of Moses, 'Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in the wilderness, but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice'.
You will learn that when the Pilgrims headed to the new world they looked at it like Moses being in the desert for decades yet being led to the promised land. And their leader William Bradford proclaimed their mission to be as vital as that of 'Moses and the Israelites when they went out of Egypt'.
Page 35 you will read of how at the Continental Congress in 1776 Philadelphia comparisons with Moses and the Exodus 'filled the air, from the politicians,preachers, pamphlets to pulpits' where that year was compared to the Israelites fleeing Egypt. And how 'Thomas Paine invoked the analogy in Common Sense the best selling book of the year'. Then we read 'And on the afternoon of July 4, after passing the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress asked John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin to come up with a public face of the new United States. They chose Moses'.
Then on page 36 it continues. 'Decades later when Americans went looking for a symbol of 1776, they didn't select the Declaration of Independence, the building where it was signed,or a myriad of other relics from Philadelphia. They chose the 2,080 pound bell that once hung in the belfry of the State House of Pennsylvania. And they did so not because of its shape, its sound, or even its crack. They made the Liberty bell the icon of America because of the eleven words molded near its crown that were taken from the story of Moses and linked the aspirations of the United States to the ideals formed on the shores of the Red Sea and sung from the mountaintops of Sinai'.
But how did this happen exactly? How did a quote from one of the most frustrating books of the Bible end up as the beloved watchword for American freedom? How did the reluctant leader of Israelite slaves end up as the favorite son of the Founding Fathers? In short, how did Moses become the hero of the Revolution? '.
Page 283 Moses doesn't just live in the White House in paintings or statues but in the Library of Congress, and on the floor of the National Archives. And in six representation in the U S Supreme Court, from the center of the east pediment, gallery of statutes that lead into the court, the south frieze in the chamber itself, in the ten commandments which are displayed on the bronze gates leading to the courtroom, as well as the interior panels of the chamber doors.
Or how about the words of Moses and his life being quoted by almost every President the United States has had. Or that the Pilgrims were so steeped in Mosaic (Moses) law and language that their laws when they landed here were based on the words of Moses and the Torah. Did you know that the words of Moses on a cracked state bell known as the Liberty Bell became a national symbol of freedom? Did you know that Jefferson, Franklin, and John Adams proposed Moses for America's seal? Or that President Washington was eulogized as the American Moses? Or that it was Moses that motivated slaves as well as Lincoln in his writings and speeches?
With Thanksgiving just around the corner this is a great book to read.
Showing reviews 51-54 of 54
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