Talks & Entertainment

In a polarized era, history can become a subject of political contention. Many see America as perfect, while others argue that the national experiment is fundamentally flawed. In the anthology American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham shows that the truth likely lies between these extremes. America has had shining hours, and also dark ones. 
 
Meacham unites essential American voices from 1619 to the present, with primary-source documents that take us back to critical moments when Americans fought over the meaning and direction of the national experiment. As clashes over liberty and slavery, inclusion and exclusion, play out, these voices remind us that contentious citizenship and fair-minded observations are essential to bringing about the more perfect union envisioned in the Preamble to the Constitution. With his commentary on the consequential speeches, letters, and essays that led us to this moment, Meacham teaches us that to know what has come before, to watch as long-running disputes rise and fall, is to be armed against despair. 

Meacham will be in conversation with Amna Nawaz, co-anchor and co-managing editor of PBS News Hour, and an NBC News and MSNBC contributor. 

This event will include real-time captions. To sit in the captioned section or to access the captioned feed virtually, email Amanda Loerch.