Speaker profile last updated by AAE Talent Team on 06/10/2025.
As difficult as the present is, the American past is the story of challenges overcome, crises resolved, and progress made. In this nonpartisan speech, Jon Meacham walks audiences through moments that have seemed intractable to offer lessons for leaders on how to endure and prevail when everything appears hopeless. The presentation is an anecdotally rich reflection on history and a forward-leaning call for constructive habits of citizenship.
This is an illuminating and entertaining presentation of music and history, presented by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jon Meacham. With a multimedia presentation of images and iconic selections from great American songs, Meacham offers a glimpse of the American past and a message for the present: that America has always been defined by strife and discord, yet has managed to move forward.
“The Battle-Hymn of the Republic” vs. “I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land”; “Happy Days Are Here Again” vs. “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”; “The Ballad of the Green Berets” vs. “Blowin in the Wind”; “Born in the U.S.A.” vs. “God Bless the USA”—the whole panoply of America can be traced—and more importantly, heard and felt—in the songs that echo through our public squares. This is engaging history that speaks to the moment and beyond.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham explores what 21st-century leaders in different fields of endeavor can learn from the greatest moments of our common past.
This non-partisan presentation features lessons ranging from Jefferson's pragmatism and JFK's capacity to recover from his own mistakes to the management of conflicting egos as shown by Reagan and FDR and how George HW Bush dealt with the end of his Presidency. Meacham discusses how history can inform the decisions all of us make every day in positions that demand creative and innovative solutions.
In this presentation, Jon Meacham traces Lincoln’s moral and political development and how that links to present day America. Through Lincoln’s story, Jon illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.
In this nonpartisan, anecdotally rich presentation, Meacham describes previous moments of crisis and partisan deadlock in American history and suggests how previous generations — and we, in our own time — transcended hours of fear by heeding what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” Examples range from Reconstruction and President Grant to woman’s suffrage and President Wilson to the crisis of the 1930s and FDR and the passage of civil rights legislation under LBJ.
Jon Meacham is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Hope Through History: How to Survive Turbulent Times, Songs of America: History, Music, and the Story of a Nation, The Art of Leadership: Lessons From the American Presidency, Lincoln In Our Time: What the Life of Abraham Lincoln Can Teach Us About Leadership, Citizenship, and How We Can Overcome Division and The Soul of America. The estimated speaking fee range to book Jon Meacham for your event is available upon request. Jon Meacham generally travels from Nashville, TN, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Van Jones, Ian Bremmer, Joseph Stiglitz, Daymond John and Peter Diamandis. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Jon Meacham for an upcoming live or virtual event.
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