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Snippets of conversation with Jon Meacham

Presidential historian and Tennessean Jon Meacham discussed his book The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels with Senator Lamar Alexander on July 8 in an event sponsored by Friends of the Knox County Public Library and Union Ave Books.

In The Soul of America, Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics by looking back at critical times in our country’s history when hope overcame division. He tells us that what Abraham Lincoln called the­ “better angels of our nature” have found a way to prevail again and again during dark times throughout our country’s history.

Here are excerpts from that conversation.

About the Podcast

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Knox Pods
Podcasts of Knox County Public Library

About your hosts

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Melissa Brenneman

Melissa listens to hours of podcasts on most days. She started the habit with the intention of taking long walks, but podcasts proved to be more addicting than exercise. She records, edits and mixes podcasts for the library.
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Alan May

Alan May works as a librarian at Lawson McGhee Library. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama. In his spare time, he reads and writes poetry. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Quarterly, The Hollins Critic, The Idaho Review, DIAGRAM, and others. He has published three books of poetry.