Bill Moyers's vision for America in this crucial election year.

"Our nation can no more survive as half democracy and half oligarchy than it could survive 'half slave and half free." — from Moyers on America

Over the years millions of Americans have invited Bill Moyers into their homes. His television programs — covering topics ranging from American history, politics, and religion to the role of media and the world of ideas — have made him one of America's most recognized and honored journalists. In these pages, Moyers presents, for the first time, a powerful statement of his own personal beliefs — political and moral. Combining illuminating forays into American history with candid comments on today's politics, Moyers delivers perceptive and trenchant insights into the American experience.

From his early years as a Texas journalist to his role as one of the organizers of the Peace Corps, top assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, publisher of Newsday, senior correspondent and analyst for CBS News, and producer of many of public television's groundbreaking series, Moyers has been actively engaged in some of the most volatile episodes of the past fifty years. Drawing from this practical experience, he demonstrates a unique understanding of how American politics works and an enduring faith in the nation's promises and possibilities. Whether reflecting on today's climate of megamedia concentration, rampant corporate scandals, or religious and political upheavals, Moyers on America recovers the hopes of the past to establish their relevance for the present.

The venerable Bill Moyers started his journalistic life as a 16-year- old at an East Texas newspaper. He was an organizer of the Peace Corps, a publisher of Newsday, and a spokesman for President Lyndon Johnson. Today his voice, its Texas inflections intact, is familiar to watchers of his PBS current-events series as well as the many documentaries he's worked on over the years. His interviews are famously penetrating, his conversations—with workers, poets, visionaries, and tycoons—engaging. He's also a beautiful writer, and in this compilation of essays he reflects on a topic he's returned to many times: democracy and what's going wrong in America.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"Moyers's ability to communicate history, philosophy and personal experience simultaneously is impressive....Moyers's wisdom, common sense and deeply felt principles should inspire and energize many readers in the very best way." Publishers Weekly

"[A] thoughtful and caustic look at American politics....Moyers powerfully and eloquently laments the increasing influence of the wealthy at the expense of the poor....A wide-ranging examination of American politics." Vanessa Bush, Booklist

Whether reflecting on today's climate of megamedia concentration, rampant corporate scandals, or religious and political upheavals, Moyers recovers the hopes of the past to establish their relevance for the present.

Bill Moyers is the host of Now with Bill Moyers on PBS. He is the winner of more than thirty Emmy Awards, and the author of the bestselling books Listening to America, A World of Ideas, and Healing and the Mind.

Foreword ix
Editor's Note xv
Part 1 America Now 1
This Is Your Story. Pass It On 3
Which America Will We Be Now? 23
One Year Later 26
War Is War 29
Crossing the Euphrates 35
Part 2 The Soul of Democracy 37
The Declaration in Our Times 39
Many Faiths, One Nation 47
The Soul of Democracy 61
Democracy in Peril 68
Wearing the Flag 81
Part 3 The Media 83
The Making of a Journalist 85
Journalism and Democracy 99
Countering the Bastard Muses 107
The Fight of Our Lives 123
Public Access in Peril 127
Part 4 Looking Back 151
Where the Jackrabbits Were 153
Empty Nest 157
Second Thoughts 159
Good Friend 181
Aging 191