Jon Meacham Abraham Lincoln And The American Struggle

A belligerent democracy, clashing visions of the nation’s future, money, power, race, faith – and a president hated as much as he was hailed.

Those aren’t just modern realities, but the challenges faced by America’s 16th president as he led a country at war with itself.

Jon Meacham’s vivid new biography, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, pulls back the veil on the iconic figure to reveal a child of the frontier steeped in Baptist sermons of emancipation, and an adult of deepening faith in the ability of conscience to expand the possibilities of democracy.

Mr. Meacham joins us to discuss President Lincoln’s convictions and political failures – and how the ways and means of politics have and have not changed over the past 160 years.

Jon Meacham is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers and holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University. He will be in conversation with Willie Geist, host of NBC News’ Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist. He co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and a regular host and contributor to TODAY. Geist is the author of three books, including the New York Times bestsellers Good Talk, Dad, and American Freak Show. He lives in New York with his wife and their two children.