First time visiting BookBrowse? Get a free copy of our member's ezine today.

Book Summary and Reviews of America's Prophet by Bruce Feiler

America's Prophet by Bruce Feiler

America's Prophet

Moses and the American Story

by Bruce Feiler

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Oct 2009, 368 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

Whenever the USA has experienced hard times it has turned to the Exodus story for direction, inspiration and hope. The Pilgrims quoted his story. Franklin and Jefferson proposed he appear on the U.S. seal. Washington and Lincoln were called his incarnation. The Statue of Liberty was molded on his image. Martin Luther King invoked him the night before he died. Barack Obama casts his presidency in his image.

As they face another moment of national anxiety - and ask, What is the meaning of America? What are our values? Will we rise again? Moses once more holds the clues and points the way. In his boldest book to date, Bruce Feiler visits the island where the Pilgrims spent their first Sabbath, climbs the bell tower where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses, retraces the Underground Railroad where Go Down, Moses was the national anthem of slaves, and dons the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments. Meticulously researched and highly readable, America's Prophet is a thrilling, entirely original work of history that will forever change how we view America, faith and the future.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Feiler is a popularizer, and readers interested in a light and cursory treatment of a theme in U.S. history will enjoy it." - Publishers Weekly

"A facile retracing of American history on a Mosaic theme - which is not to say Feiler fans won't love it." - Kirkus Reviews

"Starred Review. Feiler confidently concludes that the major themes of Moses' story continue to shape America and affect the lives of countless Americans, such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Fascinating and thought provoking." - Booklist

"This is one of the most original, intelligent and endlessly fascinating books I have read in years: it should become a set book for anyone wanting to know what truly makes America tick." - Simon Winchester

"With a journalist eye and an adventurers spirit, Bruce Feiler brings his prodigious gifts of biblical analysis to a reconsideration of Moses as the essential prophet of the American Experience. This is an accessible and engaging book of indispensable insight." - Tony Horwitz

"What a smart, original, and deeply intriguing reflection on the role Moses played – yes, Moses – U.S. history. America's Prophet is Bruce Feiler at his innovative best: compelling, sweeping and engaging. Highly recommended!" - Douglas Brinkley

This information about America's Prophet was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Bruce Feiler Author Biography

Photo Credit: Andrew Feiler

Bruce Feiler is the New York Times bestselling author of Walking the Bible, The Council of Dads, Learning to Bow, Looking for Class, and Under the Big Top.

A frequent contributor to NPR's All Things Considered, and contributing editor for Gourmet he writes regularly about American music for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other publications. He recieved international acclaim for his influential cover story in The New Republic, Gone Country. He also writes the "This Life" column about today's families for the Sunday New York Times.

He is the writer/presenter of the PBS series "Walking the Bible" and "Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler" (July 2014).

Bruce was named "Father of the Year" by the National Fatherhood Initiative.

A native of Savannah, Georgia, Feiler lives in ...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Bruce Feiler's Website

Name Pronunciation
Bruce Feiler: fi-ler (first syllable rhymes with my)

Other books by Bruce Feiler at BookBrowse
  • Abraham jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more history, current affairs and religion...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The Most
    by Jessica Anthony
    In November 1957, Kathleen and Virgil Beckett are living at Acropolis Place, an apartment complex in...
  • Book Jacket: Pink Slime
    Pink Slime
    by Fernanda Trias
    Unsurprisingly, the 21st century has been something of a boom time for environmental disaster in ...
  • Book Jacket: Becoming Earth
    Becoming Earth
    by Ferris Jabr
    The idea of Earth as one living, breathing organism is an age-old one, found in belief systems all ...
  • Book Jacket: Long Island Compromise
    Long Island Compromise
    by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
    Taffy Brodesser-Akner's second novel, Long Island Compromise, is centered around the Fletchers, a ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Story Collector
by Evie Woods
From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    We'll Prescribe You a Cat
    by Syou Ishida

    Discover the bestselling Japanese novel celebrating the healing power of cats.

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

K U with T J

and be entered to win..

Book Club Giveaway!
Win Before the Mango Ripens

Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian

Both epic and intimate, this debut announces a brilliant new talent for readers of Imbolo Mbue and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Enter

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.