It's an interesting book, though limited in scope—while Meacham does a good job contextualizing Lewis' civil rights work in the 1960s, it doesn't paint a full portrait of the legendary activist ... Meacham writes eloquently about Lewis' participation in the first march from Selma ... Meacham's book is good for what it is—an introduction to one decade in Lewis' remarkable life. It's not more than that, and doesn't quite seek to be, but readers hoping to find a full portrait of the congressman will be disappointed ... The most interesting parts of Meacham's book are his observations about how Lewis' activism was inspired by his Christian faith ... But while Meacham is undoubtedly sincere about his admiration for Lewis' faith, concentrating mostly on that aspect of his life—an undeniably important one, to be sure—limits the book in a way many might find frustrating ... Nonetheless, it's an inspiring book that comes at a time when the world desperately needs inspiration.
... an unembarrassed hagiography ... Meacham’s account is loving and instructive. In his portrayal, Lewis was not as visionary as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., or as arresting as Malcolm X, or as captivating as Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture). But to Meacham he was more admirable than any of them in terms of his dogged determination, his unimpeachable personal decency and his unshakable faith that seeking justice by noble means would ultimately lead to redemption ... He relates with verve the story of Lewis’s early manhood ... His Truth Is Marching On makes two important points especially well. The first has to do with a feature of the Black freedom movement that is often neglected ... Praiseworthy, too, is Meacham’s care in emphasizing the breadth of the leadership that stepped forward so splendidly to guide the Black freedom movement ... His Truth Is Marching On would have benefited from more creative tension between its author and his hero ... More questioning on Meacham’s part would have provided a salutary interruption for cheerleading that, at last, becomes a bit boring.
... hagiographic ... Meacham wants to show that despite evidence all around us of injustices committed in the name of religion, faith-based activism can produce a better society ... Meacham tells this story with his customary eloquence. And by decentering Martin Luther King Jr. in favor of SNCC, he allows less famous activists to come to the fore ... Compared with Meacham’s earlier works, this book, published only a few months after his most recent one, gives the impression of having been written in haste. Much of it relies on Lewis’s 1998 memoir, Walking With the Wind. The emphasis on the spiritual origins of Lewis’s commitment to social change leads to slighting the movement’s more secular catalysts ... Meacham’s book is a welcome reminder of the heroic sacrifices and remarkable achievements of...young radicals—20th-century America’s greatest generation.
Readers who know little about Lewis will find an often moving story, but it will prove unsatisfying to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the movement ... Meacham’s impulses are laudable but more suited to an op-ed, in which stirring rhetoric trumps nuance. Stretched to book length, the history gets shaky, reliant on a dated understanding of the movement as primarily regional and religious, rather than national and political, and emphasizing what today are its most noncontroversial aspects ... Here’s the problem with reducing Lewis’ life to his time in the movement: It turns the movement into the John Lewis story. Meacham’s ideas about Christian witness fit the protests against segregated spaces but hold less value in understanding mobilizations against discrimination in jobs, housing and schools ... Meacham’s decision to eschew a full biography seems to have been also motivated by the 2020 election, aimed at drawing a parallel between Trump’s resurgent white nationalism and white segregationists. And yet, in doing so, he misses so much.
The story of Lewis’s life, beginning on a sharecropper’s farm in Troy, Alabama, where as a child he delivered sermons to chickens, is familiar ground ... What Meacham brings to the tale is a keen eye for the historic moment, as well as reverence for the religious faith that drove Lewis to a life of personal sacrifice ... His Truth Is Marching On combines careful reporting, historic photographs, and detailed notes and appendices, but the book ultimately shines brightest as a story of how one man made a difference by believing in justice and offering hope for a nation in difficult times.
Meacham makes a persuasive case for his claim that 'John Robert Lewis embodied the traits of a saint in the classical Christian sense of the term.' At a moment when events have once again forced Americans to confront the evils of racism, His Truth Is Marching On will inspire both courage and hope.
Meacham concisely chronicles his subject’s highs and lows and, most importantly, his personal sacrifices—not least of them being severely beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965 while leading a protest march. Given his remarkable accomplishments, Lewis is that rare historical figure who deserves his lionization. Refreshingly, Meacham offers a distinctly human portrait of a man who struggled with anxieties, fears, and occasionally despair, a leader who dug deep to find the courage to keep going in the face of nearly insurmountable cultural resistance. From his humble beginnings to his recent death, the author clearly demonstrates Lewis’ bravery and survivor’s instinct ... As always, the author is a fluid writer, and the book benefits from his inclusion of commentary from such contemporaries as Harry Belafonte. An added bonus is a heartfelt epilogue by Lewis himself ... An elegant, moving portrait of a giant of post-1950 American history.
A profile in courage and faith under fire emerges from this vivid portrait of Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis ... Meacham sometimes goes overboard in his adulation ... Still, this gripping work is deeply relevant to America’s current turmoil over racial injustice.
