Defiant Hope: Essays on Life, Faith, and Freedom

by Michael Gerson

The best writings from George W. Bush’s speechwriter Michael Gerson, a pioneer of the compassionate conservative movement, a champion of Christian engagement, and an eloquent defender of the poor and the marginalized.It is not an exaggeration to say that Michael Gerson possessed one of the most important consciences of his generation. As the chief speech writer for George W. Bush, he wrote the words that rallied and ennobled the nation after September 11th. He helped design and champion Bush’s PEPFAR program, which saved upwards of 20 million lives as HIV ravaged Africa. His famous line defending public education was to say that failure would amount to “a soft bigotry of low expectations.” He became one of the nation’s most eloquent columnists, who was never content to do political horse race punditry but devoted himself to the most essential causes of the time, pushing back on the authoritarianism of Donald Trump and pushing for the kind of compassionate conservatism that he dedicated his life to designing. Defiant Hope is his writings about the things he loved—humanity, God, his dog, and his boys. Essays feature the immensely complicated sadness when you drop your children off at college for the first time. Another is about his public battle of depression. He also includes chapters about men and women who formed this great procession of Christian Reformers—John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, William Wilberforce, and Olaudah Equiano—and the great causes to which they were devoted, from abolitionism to civil rights.What lingers is his gracious voice across all the roles that he played, as David Brooks writes in the introduction. What you hear is “a prophet lamenting iniquity, a father and a friend capable of great bursts of gratitude and appreciation, a Christian who is sometimes buried under sadness and close to despair, but who never loses sight of that distant illuminating beacon of hope.”

288 pages, Hardcover

Published November 19, 2024

About the author

Columnist for The Washington Post, a Policy Fellow with the ONE Campaign, a visiting fellow with the Center for Public Justice, and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006, and was a member of the White House Iraq Group

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Gerson served as a speechwriter and policy adviser to George W. Bush. He joined the Washington Post as a columnist after leaving the White House. Defiant Hope is an enviable legacy of his gift for the written word. It consists mostly of Post columns, but the first two extended essays are riveting lessons in American history that trace the tension between Calvinism and Methodism to the political dissatisfaction of the American colonists with their British brethren.

Gerson left us too early, aged only 58 years, having succumbed to the cancer whose diagnosis he discussed in one of the book’s columns. A self-described evangelical Christian, he was concerned about the adverse effects that modern politics had on the role of religion in American life. His political stances can fairly be characterized as Bulwarkian. I disagreed with much of what he wrote, but Gerson’s implacable love for humanity (and dogs), a thing increasingly rarely seen in reference to political antagonists, was rewarding to witness all the same.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is a collection of interesting and even inspiring essays. At times, the topics felt disjointed from each other, even within essays, and not everything in the book was "hopeful." Generally, however, the essays suited the title. I don't agree with Gerson on everything (which had no impact on my rating), but readers who can put politics aside will, I hope, appreciate his courage to defy the party line for what he believes is right and true. I would love to see more compassion and true Christian living from American conservatives. I'm planning to buy this book for others because there were some great quotes I highlighted in my Kindle. This book honors the late Gerson’s legacy with its thoughtfulness and good writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy. I post this review with my honest opinions.

[Christy Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the title and overall this audiobook provided some good food for thought. The first part was a little deeper dive into Christian history than I was expecting but I enjoyed the essays in the second half.