America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story

Bruce Feiler's "American Prophet" presents a strong case for the prominence of Moses in shaping the American story. The author's travels to historical locations document that the Exodus story is America's story. This is fascinating history.

"America's Prophet" is original history that is based on Bruce Feiler's thorough research. The author visits American historical sites that are keys to understanding his compelling narrative on Moses as America's real founding father. These include a trip to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell with the quotation on its face from Leviticus 25, which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof". Other travels take the author to the Underground Railroad locations including the Ohio River crossing location that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to write of the slave girl Eliza carrying her son to freedom across the Ohio River. Feiler visits Saint Paul's Chapel in lower Manhattan, which survived on 9/11, for a reenactment of the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States. His connection of Moses and the first President of the USA forms a superb chapter.
The other excellent chapters include the Pilgrims, the Statue of Liberty,
Hollywood and the Ten Commandments, and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement. All of these narratives provide very readable as well as very sound history in support of the book's title and thesis: Moses is America's Prophet and the Exodus story is America's story.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Very Well Organized and Another Great Read from Feiler

I have been wanting to read this book for a while and it met my expectations. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the Underground Railroad and Martin Luther King, Jr. The entire book was very informative and well organized. With a book on the theme of Moses and Promised Land, it could tend to be a little repetitive, but this did not take away from the sense of the book. I thought the author did a good job of defending his ideas. I particularly liked his courage at the end to look for lessons and to advocate for action. I do feel that America, as a nation, is divided. We need a national dialogue of some kind that helps us reconnect as a people. I'm sure that this book will develop a lot of discussion. Thank You, Mr. Feiler, for sharing your ideas with us and being willing to investigate such a intellectually curious subject.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Did you know what was supposed to be on our money instead of the pyramid and the American eagle?

I know most of you know the story of Moses and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt into the land of milk and honey. But did you ever stop and think just how that story still relates to America?

Do you see the correlation in the Pilgrims fleeing their ruling King James of England in search of the New Land? Or how many of our past presidents have made reference to the story of Moses and his life, the instruction from God, the giving of the 10 Commandments, and thus failure to follow God.

Moses was commanded to follow God's instruction to the T, and every time he didn't he was punished. He never got to see the fulfillment of the Promised Land to the people he led for 40 years in the desert.

In the book, America's Prophet, How The Story of Moses Shaped America by Bruce Feiler, you are taken back to the story of Moses and see how many times this very man and his life is repeated through our own history in America. I can honestly tell you as someone who loves history and faith in God, this book spoke to my heart and soul. I absolutely loved seeing God's hand in the creation of this once blessed nation and how He continues to mold and shape us through the retelling of the story.

You'll learn about the history and creation of the liberty bell and learn how God was involved.
What the actual inscription means that is molded into the bell.

You'll learn how valuable the Bible was that Washington used, what scripture was open when he took his oath of office and what the connection was to September 11, 2001.

You'll learn what the original seal was supposed to be, and how we got to the eagle and one-eye pyramid, and so much more. I think I interrupted my husband so much with each new tidbit I learned and couldn't wait to share it.

This is a must read for those that love history, especially American History and how God really worked in this great nation even to the present day.

I received this book compliments of TLC Book Tours for my honest review and must say it's a permanent fixture in our library now for our kids to learn about as we study history. Any parent would benefit from teaching their kids a little bit more about what's missing from our traditional history books.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Surprising But Very True

That Moses has been a key figure in American history is an idea that seems at first misplaced and wrong. When I skipped the book on my Kindle, that was my basic thinking. But I got it for Christmas, so I gave it a shot, and. it is one of the best books I have read in a very long time.

Bruce Feiler explains that the Bible spends one book (Genesis) getting to Moses, and then it spends 4 books on Moses. The history of the world, from the beginning until the Exodus from Egypt, including the Creation, the Flood, the patriarchs, Joseph, 2000 years worth, that all gets 1 book.. For the people of the Reformation, who for the first time could read the Bible in their language and have it in their possession, the Bible had some shocking and revolutionary points to make. The Bible speaks against the divine right of kings, a theory or doctrine that has been seen in almost every society of human history, one so powerful that it keeps the people down, and one so useful to rulers that they build it up. The basic idea behind the divine right is the same in Asian lands, many to this day, simply called the Mandate of Heaven.

The Bible is a radical political document because monarchy is simply unbiblical. The Bible brings the Pharaohs, Emperors, Ceasars, and Kings claims to heavenly sanction crashing down to Earth. The Bible is full of prophets criticizing, judging, and condemning kings, from Moses and the Pharaoh to Samuel and Saul to Nathan and David. This is a revolutionary idea, "a veritable call to revolution." That kings rule can become slavery, a yoke of bondage that violates the freedom God gave to all of his children, is another, connected, revolutionary idea. Humans have rights, heaven doesn't write a blank check to those in power, it places moral limits on them.

As late as Columbus, the Bible was not widely read in Europe. "Throughout the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church, eager to monopolize its power, insisted that the Bible was so sacred it must be read only in Latin, could be interpreted only by its clergy, and had to be kept only in church. The penalty for violating these edicts could be death." Most churches didn't have a Bible, and reproducing one by hand would take 2 monks 4 years to do, working full time side by side.

But once the hold that the Roman Catholic Church held on the West was broken, once there was a printing press reproducing Bibles and lowering the costs dramatically, and the scriptures were left the realm of the mystery rituals, mental revolutions began. When Bibles became owned by most families and read and spoken about as the common currency of the culture, revolutions began to happen. By 1650 1.4 million Bibles had been printed in England alone. The people could debate what the scriptures said about Henry the 8th's marriages. By the 19th Century, Americans were nearly universal in deep Biblical literacy, something lost in recent decades.

The Exodus story was used as explicit inspiration for the people who left the Egypt of the Old World and came to the Promised Land, a wilderness that God would make flow with milk and honey. The Pilgrims believed they were casting off the toke of their Pharaoh, King James, and building a new Zion in the Promised Land. Their leader, William Bradford, said in 1620, when they had arrived on Cape Cod after 66 days in the stormy Atlantic, that they should thank God for their safe passage through their own Red Sea. Cotton Mather said in 1702 that any leader of a peop

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Awesome!

Oh, the things they fail to teach us in school. A must read.

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