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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
This was on my Christmas list and I happily received and started to read it. Each essay reminds you what the best of this country is about, he shares personal stories and talks about his own ignorance and evolution in regards to his views on race, discrimination and the realization that the idolized country of his youth was not the reality. Dan Rather has been in a front row seat for many historic, both good and bad, events for this country. He has traveled extensively, interviewed and asked tough questions. This book is full of meditations, insights and in some ways challenges on what it means to be a Patriot. Mr. Rather is well aware he is in the waning years of his life and makes a successful attempt at putting down on paper his hard won lessons about this country. I look forward to re reading these essays to fully digest and contemplate them.
reflective
medium-paced
Great book detailing why America is so special.
Political therapy.
Dan Rather has composed a really wonderful memoir/history, organized conceptually by such topics as empathy, courage, education, service, science, and environment. While Rather certainly waxes nostalgic, he does not remain lost in the past. He examines the best of America as well as where we’ve fallen so very short in living up to our purported ideals. For me, What Unites Us provided some much needed hope. America’s story isn’t over.
Dan Rather has composed a really wonderful memoir/history, organized conceptually by such topics as empathy, courage, education, service, science, and environment. While Rather certainly waxes nostalgic, he does not remain lost in the past. He examines the best of America as well as where we’ve fallen so very short in living up to our purported ideals. For me, What Unites Us provided some much needed hope. America’s story isn’t over.
Dan Rather has delivered an important book for these trying times highlighting the importance of voting, education, science, the arts and so very much more of what has made America great and can help to make a more perfect union.
At a time when I'm grasping at straws trying to remember the America I grew up loving Rather eloquently brings it all back into focus.
A bit over sentimental at points but otherwise the right book at the right time.
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
I did the audiobook for this one and it was cool to hear it read by Dan. It was an interesting book in terms of learning about the past. I appreciated his perspectives, especially as a fellow Texan, for how things once were living in America. I loved his reflections in particular about the Depression era and more in general, the ways in which we used to unify ourselves. Some examples included moments such as war times, the Nixon downfall (here in particular a reflection on our Democracy and how it held up in the fallout of the scandal), the Challenger explosion. But mostly the book is in broader terms of topics like Science and the Arts and Education and Inclusion and the general themes of what once upon a time made us a more together country. He offers no real solutions for how to bring back such harmony - and to be fair to him, I don't think it was really intended as a solution oriented book, more a reminder of what has been. 6 short years on from this publication date, to me I see our Nation even more divided than it was at that time not so long ago, and it seems to get worse everyday. In the face of that, I'm sad to say this book feels way more like a piece of nostalgia rather than something that is achievable once again. But it is a good history lesson and it does serve as a reminder of what is possible and what values we once considered important. And could again, if we had the will to do it. His particular perspective as someone who covered many large events of our time in the mass media makes it more unique too. While I personally admire his thought process on these topics and I believe his opinions are sensible and worthwhile, these ideas seem to be falling on deaf ears more and more when it comes to the general modern day American. And I'm not sure how we get closer to the middle instead of further apart, either. As a book, I didn't love it, didn't hate it.
This should be required reading for everyone. Brilliant. Thoughtful. Poignant. Steadying.
