The Council of Dads is now a New York Times bestseller!! My fifth in a row. Thank you for all your support.
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My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me
When bestselling author Bruce Feiler was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his leg, he could only imagine all the walks he might not take with his daughters, the ballet recitals he would miss, the art projects left undone, and the aisles he might not walk down. Though his daughters would have plenty of resources in their lives, they wouldn’t have their Dad. He decided to write to six men who had been with him throughout his life- men who could become his voice and his daughters’ Council of Dads. READ MORE
Read Bruce’s cancer diary.
Moses and the American Story
In this groundbreaking book, New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler reveals how Moses became America’s true founding father. Traveling through touchstones in American history, Feiler traces the biblical prophet’s influence from the Mayflower through today. Feiler visits the island where the pilgrims spent their first Sabbath, climbs the bell tower where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses, retraces the Underground Railroad where “Go Down, Moses” was the national anthem of slaves, and dons the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments. READ MORE
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Watch my brand-new talk about THE COUNCIL OF DADS! It lasts just under 18 minutes.
My wife and I appeared on “The Today Show” to talk about THE COUNCIL OF DADS with Matt Lauer. Check it out here.
Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia’
Charlton Heston the Face of the U.S.A.? How Moses Was Chosen for the Great Seal
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
THIS WEEK IN MOSES: The biblical hero becomes the face of America.
Immediately after approving the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to design a new seal for the United States. As proof of its importance, the committee had three members, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Franklin and Jefferson independently proposed that Moses appear as the public face of the new country. (Adams proposed Hercules, but declared his own selection unoriginal.)
The parallels between a small beleaguered band colonists fighting for freedom against the greatest empire in the world and the small, beleaguered community of Israelite slaves fighting against the greatest empire in the world was widely popular in 1776. Thomas Paine, in the best-selling book of the year, Common Sense, made the connection explicitly. He called King George “a pharaoh.”
On August 20th, the seal committee submitted its official recommendation:
Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his head and a Sword in his hand, passing through the divided Waters of the Red Sea in Pursuit of the Israelites: Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Cloud, expressive of the divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who stands on the shore and extending his hand over the Sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh.
The committee’s report offers vivid, behind-the-scenes evidence that the founders of the United States viewed themselves as acting in the image of Moses. Three of the five drafters of the Declaration of Independence and three of the defining faces of the Revolution – Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams – proposed that Moses be the face of the United States of America. In their eyes, Moses was America’s true founding father.