Meacham perceives a stark decision for America

The country is confronted with “a moral dilemma” regarding whether we permit our finest or lowest instincts to dominate in a struggle for the essence of America, historian Jon Meacham conveyed to Harvard President Emerita Drew Faust during a discussion on history and U.S. democracy on Wednesday at the Kennedy School.

Author of the 2018 work, “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” Meacham remarked, “We must choose if we can reside in a nation where we forgo our immediate desires to engage in a pact where the rule of law prevails” — or we do not.

Meacham is convinced that a significant political transformation has occurred in recent times. During previous presidential contests, such as Richard Nixon’s slim defeat to John F. Kennedy in 1960, Americans could rely on candidates to concede defeat regardless of the closeness or contentiousness of the race. This is no longer true, he indicated.

“My primary concern at this moment is that there’s an authoritarian trend in the country that will be intensified and expedited,” stated Meacham, who teaches history at Vanderbilt University and earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his book on Andrew Jackson, “American Lion.”

His interest in presidents is not about creating Great Man-style mythology, but rather to unveil their intrinsic humanity, Meacham explained.

“If history possesses any moral value — and I believe it does — I hope it is not to intimidate individuals with the magnificence and splendor of someone’s life, but to demonstrate that flawed and imperfect individuals can achieve remarkable things.”

Meacham acted as an informal adviser and speechwriter to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and was sometimes referred to as Biden’s “muse” due to their closely aligned perceptions of American democracy. When Faust, a Civil War historian, inquired how he transitioned from documenting history to participating in that history, Meacham recounted a vivid experience.

“It was the moment I had been anticipating since I was six years old,” Meacham recounted. “It’s the Oval Office. The leader of the United States is seated behind the Resolute Desk, sunlight pouring in. I can smell FDR’s cigarette smoke; I can see RFK reaching out to the Soviets. And I sat down next to the president’s desk, and the president of the United States asked me a question, and I started talking, and I didn’t make a lick of sense,” he said. “It was dreadful.”

Meacham noted that if he were president, he would avoid holding serious meetings in the Oval Office because of how the past can overshadow the present.

“I think it distorts perspectives, and I believe it’s incredibly challenging for presidents to receive candid counsel, especially in that room,” he asserted.

When a student requested how the legacy of slavery shapes the current political landscape, Meacham responded: “I believe we have not addressed it, and we exist in the exceedingly long shadow not only of Appomattox but of Reconstruction.”

Referencing Edward Alfred Pollard, the Richmond newspaper editor who originated the term “The Lost Cause” in his 1866 account of the war, Meacham pointed out, “He explicitly states that ‘Although we lost the war, we have not lost the struggle for the principle, which was the principle of white supremacy.’ And I think we are still contending with that tension today.”