From Publishers Weekly
"I am a journalist but I am also a pilgrim," Moyers declares in this eloquent selection of his speeches and commentaries. Although these 20 pieces have been edited to resemble essays, their origin lends them a rousing urgency, as Moyers relates stories and insights in his personal journey from small-town Texas boyhood to eminent broadcast journalist. Whether he's extolling the virtues of participatory democracy based on the early 20th-century Progressive movement or lamenting recent evidence that democracy is on the auction block with politicians bought by special interests, Moyers's ability to communicate history, philosophy and personal experience simultaneously is impressive. His instinct for enlisting stories to get his message across appears throughout this collection, including tales from the years he worked for Lyndon Johnson (before and after Johnson became President). In a portrait of Johnson's political strengths and personal weaknesses, a less canny storyteller might leave out the telling anecdote about LBJ's integrating the Faculty Club of the University of Texas in 1964, but not Moyers. The same combination of candor, vividness and forthrightness animating his Johnson portrait is what gives such authority to Moyers's arguments that responsible journalism of unquestioned integrity is essential to our democratic process and that domination of news media by conglomerates, along with trends in celebrity-obsessed journalism, is undermining the freedom of the press. Moyers's wisdom, common sense and deeply felt principles should inspire and energize many readers in the very best way. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Award-winning journalist Moyers offers a thoughtful and caustic look at American politics. This first-time collection of Moyers' commentaries begins with his speech "This Is Your Story. Pass It On," read by millions online and applauded for its insights into the troublesome trends in American democracy. Moyers powerfully and eloquently laments the increasing influence of the wealthy at the expense of the poor. In other essays, Moyers recalls a more progressive era in the U.S., when the government played an active role in protecting citizens, and reporters were more vigilant in their scrutiny of corruption. Reflecting on his personal beliefs and observations from his various perches as journalist, Peace Corps organizer, and top assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, Moyers offers a variety of penetrating views on the past 50 years of American politics. He laments the "final fling" of progressive politics in the Johnson administration and rails against heartless conservatism and corporate journalism, trends that he sees threatening the very essence of democracy. But amid the plethora of corporate scandals, shameless materialism, and religious and political chaos afoot in the nation, Moyers sees a battle to renew American democracy. A wide-ranging examination of American politics. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
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.

About the Author
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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Bill Moyers, who has risen to an unparalleled place in our public life through his searching conversations with others, here steps out of the role of interlocutor and presents his own eloquent examination of what has gone wrong in America -- a critique always balanced by an enduring faith in the progressive promise of the nation. Drawing on the lessons of his storied career, as well as on those of history itself, he sounds the tocsin with a warning that the soul of democracy is dying in America, replaced increasingly by government of, by, and for a corporate ruling class. Whether reflecting on mega-media mergers that contribute to the replacement of truth-seeking with infotainment, corporate scandals that highlight the vast and growing distance between rich and poor, or political policies that have substituted casual belligerence for a careful tending to justice, Moyers on America seeks to return the conversation of democracy back to its most fundamental questions.

SYNOPSIS

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

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

"I am a journalist but I am also a pilgrim," Moyers declares in this eloquent selection of his speeches and commentaries. Although these 20 pieces have been edited to resemble essays, their origin lends them a rousing urgency, as Moyers relates stories and insights in his personal journey from small-town Texas boyhood to eminent broadcast journalist. Whether he's extolling the virtues of participatory democracy based on the early 20th-century Progressive movement or lamenting recent evidence that democracy is on the auction block with politicians bought by special interests, Moyers's ability to communicate history, philosophy and personal experience simultaneously is impressive. His instinct for enlisting stories to get his message across appears throughout this collection, including tales from the years he worked for Lyndon Johnson (before and after Johnson became President). In a portrait of Johnson's political strengths and personal weaknesses, a less canny storyteller might leave out the telling anecdote about LBJ's integrating the Faculty Club of the University of Texas in 1964, but not Moyers. The same combination of candor, vividness and forthrightness animating his Johnson portrait is what gives such authority to Moyers's arguments that responsible journalism of unquestioned integrity is essential to our democratic process and that domination of news media by conglomerates, along with trends in celebrity-obsessed journalism, is undermining the freedom of the press. Moyers's wisdom, common sense and deeply felt principles should inspire and energize many readers in the very best way. (May 10) Forecast: A major media and advertising campaign should alert Moyers's huge audience to the unique appeal of this provocative yet always genial collection. New Press plans a 100,000-copy first printing, and publication coincides with Moyers's 70th birthday. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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