LISTENING TO AMERICA

Bill Moyers, having held the ruling hand (he was special assistant to Lyndon Johnson), determined last summer to meet the people: "I wanted to hear people speak for themselves."

Listening to America, a series of interviews tied together by Moyers' commentary, is essentially journalism, and sometimes excellent. Steelhaulers in East Gary, a Coca-Cola vice-president in Bondurant, the parents of draft resisters in Beaumont, a Forest Service officer in Cascade, a Boeing executive with a runaway daughter ("Where did I betray her? Where did I betray myself?"), an activist in San Francisco's Chinatown -- all reveal some of their doubts and pain. The feel of an angry community meeting on campus unrest in Colfax, Washington is reproduced. Perhaps people open up for Bill Moyers because he is a niceguy liberal and clearly believes what they say. But Moyers' own observations are either banal or mawkish ("Only in the midst of adversity. . . did I find those qualities which are the bedrock strength of America"). America, as Dan Berrigan said, is hard to find.

Had Moyers started with his epilogue--commonsense generalizations--and ended with his prologue--aching questions--this would be a wiser book. Portions of it appeared in Harper's magazine.