Hi everyone, it's Omna Navaz. Welcome to another episode of Settle In. Today we're talking to

Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian and best-selling author John Meacham. He has a fabulous

new book out called American Struggle, which looks back at historical texts and speeches to tell us

more about who we are today. But we had a fascinating conversation. We got a little deep

sometimes, too. He reflected back on how he thinks today about the presidency of Joe Biden and what

his impact and legacy could be. He also shares the one piece of historical text that he thinks

every single American should read. You're going to want to check this

out. And he also talked about why he's still hopeful today and where he finds hope as America

marks 250 years. So settle in and enjoy my conversation with John Meacham.

Listen, before we talk about history, before we talk about your books, before we talk about how we got here,

I want to talk about where we are right now at this moment as a nation, because as you and I have

spoken, as we say a lot, even at PBS News and News Hour, we talk about unprecedented times, these

moments of great division, about uncertainty and fear in our culture right now. But you are

immersed in this. So what words do you use to describe where we are right now as a nation?

How would you describe it? It's a vital turning point between a constitutional order. One road is a constitutional order

that may not give us everything we want, but preserves an ethos in which we can see each other not as enemies but as rivals and opponents and the fact

that you want to a rival an opponent instead of an enemy is an important difference. I worry that

we are almost too far turned toward the enemy, at least the politically engaged are.

One important point here is a majority of the country isn't as wrapped up in this as we are. And I don't mean that just in terms of following it

obsessively. They're not actually engaged in politics as total war, which so many people are.

But a dispositive number of American voters are. And so the trick here, the choice between that

road of a total war or a constitutional ethos, which I think is where we are right now, the fate of

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