Welcome to the Gapfest Reeds for December 24. I'm David Plotz, one of the hosts of Slate's

Political Gap Fest. Before his death in 2020, John Lewis could have made a strong case,

though he would have been too humble to have made a strong case in this way, that he was the greatest living American, a man whose lifetime of activism and service and physical bravery and moral courage and suffering were an inspiration.

Lewis was somebody who inspired. He also did. He did things. He was an incredibly influential figure in the civil rights movement from an extremely young age.

He was a speaker at the March on Washington, a founder and leader of SNCC, a congressman, an author, an icon.

And now he is subject of a comprehensive biography from one of America's leading modern historians.

Rutgers professor David Greenberg. David Greenberg, congratulations on John Lewis, a life. Thank you, David. Thank you. And your readers should know

I'm an old slate person from the early days. So we go way back. Yeah, we've known each other forever.

In fact, I used to edit your history lesson column back when you were at Slate, maybe 15, 20 years ago. And I will note, in fact, maybe this is a challenge for your book editor. Editing you was really easy because I just cut the first paragraph. You always had this sort of this throat clearing first paragraph and I would just cut it and then that was it.

You'd cut the first paragraph and then it was done.

Is that what your editor did with this 700 page book?

Well, he did a little more than that, but he actually cut less than I thought.

And I kept asking him, you know, are you sure, don't we need to cut the word count? And he kept saying to me,

it doesn't read long. So I trust that. And so far, people who've read the book have shared

the same sentiment with me. So even though it's a hefty biography, I think it reads well and

doesn't feel difficult to get through.

So the first half of John Lewis,

A Life, covers his extraordinary decade or so in the civil rights movement,

the beginning as the leader of sit-ins at Nashville, Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer,

March on Washington.

He was shockingly young.

He was brave.

...