BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Bill Moyers is such a thoughtful, sagacious, wordsmith, a man of such profound reflection on democracy, a humanist full of personal anecdotes dating back to his Texas youth...well, he is so remarkably wise that there is no place for him at the table on the mainstream corporate networks -- and he had to pretty much get the funding to buy his return to PBS.

As one online reviewer noted, when Bill Moyers speaks you get a chill down your spine. He crafts his words so that he takes you on a journey through the underpinnings of democracy -- about whose future he is sorely worried -- and you put your brain in gear because you don't want to miss a word.

Moyers talks to a crowd as it must have been in the days before radio and television, when speechmaking was an art and words and delivery were handcrafted for the audience at hand, not for the soundbite that would end up on the evening news.

"Moyers on Democracy" is a just-released anthology (May 6, 2008) of some of his most stirring speeches. We've heard a few of them, because hearing them is something that touches both the mind and the soul -- as well as a truly patriotic vision of an embracing democracy.

“Bill Moyers has been my North Star, in his eloquence, his quiet passion and courage, and in the way he presents me and millions of others with the ideals of our nation, from our past to our present to our uncertain future. Always he offers the gifts of thoughtfulness and of hope.”

-—Studs Terkel

From an online reviewer:

One of the great qualities of America is its conscience, sometimes known as that quiet but reasoned internal voice which arises when one is otherwise having a great time.

Moyers is an eloquent voice of that conscience, a clear and positive contrast to narcissist negative nagging typified by Rush Limbaugh. Nags are always pessimistic; conscience encourges one to be better. In the best of times, as in the worst of times, Americans share an optimism they can improve themselves and their society.

Nags have a purpose, if you like "boss others around" attitudes.

Conscience is a small quiet voice of personal responsibility, challenge and constructive incentives. America is a land of boundless excess; after the ruin of the Civil War, it took only 40 years to become the world's richest and most powerful nation. Andrew Carnegie typified the success of excess; he created a dynamic modern steel industry, then the world's finest public library system.

Moyers made his early contributions in politics. Instead of acquiring a personal fortune, he became a founder of the Peace Corps, one of the lasting elements of American compassion. He then turned to "the library function", providing people with information.

Unlike the compulsive nature of moral nags, no one is forced to read a book and no one is forced to listen to Moyers. Instead, the strength of both is intelligent acceptance by the community. Don't be put off by the cover photo of Moyers; he looks like a nag, but he reads like an inspiration.

This book offers some of the best of Moyers over the past 20 years. It is a collection of gems to remind us the best qualities of America are not the politics of bitterness, the greed of selfishness or the pessimism of dismal doom.

From the Publisher, Doubleday:

People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America’s most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. “And one reason,” writes noted journalist Bill McKibben, “is that Moyers pulls no punches. His understanding of America’s history is at least as deep as his understanding of Christian tradition, which is an integral part of his background . . . With his feet firmly planted in the deepest American traditions, Bill Moyers is helping to keep alive an oratorical tradition that is fading after two centuries. Trained by his career in broadcasting, he writes for the ear, his cadences and his repetitions timed to bring an audience to full realization of its role and its power.”

And that is the message of this book. Moyers on Democracy collects many of Bill Moyers’s most moving statements to connect the dots on what is happening to our country—the twinned growth of private wealth and public squalor, the assault on our Constitution, the undermining of the electoral process, the accelerating class war against ordinary (and vulnerable) Americans inherent in the growth of economic inequality, the dangers of an imperial executive, the attack on the independence of the press, the despoiling of the earth we share as our common gift—and to rekindle the reader’s conviction that “the gravediggers of democracy will not have the last word.” Richly insightful and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential reading in this fateful presidential year.

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS