America's Prophet

America's Prophet

For more than 200 years, one figure has inspired more Americans than any other: Moses. In America’s Prophet, Bruce Feiler—whose trademark blend of travelogue, history and autobiography made Walking the Bible into a bestseller and a PBS series—traces this little-known storyline in American history.

Feiler begins with the familiar story of the Pilgrims, explaining how they saw themselves as part of a new Exodus, as a chosen people escaping religious persecution in search of a promised land. He then moves on to the American Revolution, where Moses and the Exodus story inspired dreams of freedom from British tyranny. Many saw George Washington himself as a Moses figure, and Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams proposed a design for a seal of the United States featuring Moses.

The Exodus story continued to thread its way though American history, becoming a key narrative in the emancipation of blacks from the tyranny of slavery. The great heroine of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, used the alias Moses to keep her identity anonymous and became known in her time as “the Moses of Her People,” while “Go Down, Moses” became the most well-known slave spiritual. And Feiler describes how the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, was also hailed as an American Moses.

Moses’ story still resonated with Americans in the 20th century—on the big screen in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 and 1956 film extravaganzas The Ten Commandments; in the great speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., who tapped into the long love affair between Americans and Moses; and even in the greatest American hero himself, Superman, who Feiler explains was conceived in part as a modern Moses.

Feiler also gives readers a quick Bible study, telling the story of Moses as it appears—beginning in the book of Exodus—in the Torah, aka the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

And in his signature style, Feiler doesn’t just talk about ideas; he takes us on a road trip. We travel America, visiting historic sites like Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the historic recreation of the town circa 1627, Plimoth Plantation; and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Liberty Bell hung inscribed with a proclamation of freedom given to Moses, taken from the book of Leviticus. And we meet plenty of interesting people along the way, from curators and scholars to the caretaker of the DeMille estate who lets Feiler try on Charlton Heston’s robe from The Ten Commandments. It’s an enlightening journey that winds up at a Passover Seder at the home of Feiler’s in-laws outside of Boston.

In the end, America’s Prophet gives us some fresh perspectives on some familiar stories, revealing how Moses has always been at the heart of the American Dream.

Hardcover: 368 pages

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, Inc. ( October 06, 2009 )

Item #: 95-3755

ISBN: 9780060574888

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.92 inches

Product Weight: 17.0 ounces