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Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce’s extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament. At the center of this heroic life was a passionate twenty-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.
Metaxas discovers in this unsung hero a man of whom it can truly be said: he changed the world. Before Wilberforce, few thought slavery was wrong. After Wilberforce, most societies in the world came to see it as a great moral wrong. To mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade, HarperSanFrancisco and Bristol Bay Productions have joined together to commemorate the life of William Wilberforce with the feature-length film Amazing Grace and this companion biography, which provides a fuller account of the amazing life of this great man than can be captured on film.
This account of Wilberforce’s life will help many become acquainted with an exceptional man who was a hero to Abraham Lincoln and an inspiration to the anti-slavery movement in America.
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“This is unquestionably the best biography I have ever read!” — S. Michael Craven, President, Center for Christ and Culture
“Better than the movie!” — Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani
“Bravo! Metaxas’s story reads like fiction! A masterful reintroduction to Wilberforce for our generation.– David S. Kidder, Creator/Co-Author NYTimes Bestseller The Intellectual Devotional
“…a superb introduction to history’s greatest and most surprising social reformer. It will jolt the cynical and inspire the visionary.” –Os Guinness, author The Call
“Metaxas’s book, well researched and written in a lively and sparkling style, will stir your heart.” –George Gallup, Jr.
“[M]agnificent! Metaxas’s work will stand as a living landmark.” –The Rev. Floyd Flake, President, Wilberforce University, Former U.S. Congressman (NY)
“If Wilberforce is your hero, as he is mine, this is the book for you.” –J.C. Watts, Jr., Former U.S. congressman (OK)
“Crackles with verve, intelligence, wit and insight.”–Dick Staub, broadcaster and author
“…a superb history of the British campaign against slavery.” — Stanley Crouch, NY Daily News
“[Metaxas] is an irresistible writer. ‘A crackling bonfire of truth and clarity’… [told] with such a sharp eye and ready wit and moral passion that we are caught up in the momentum of it and blown away…”– John Wilson, BOOKS&CULTURE
“A superb, scholarly “must-read” book!” –Baroness Caroline Cox, House of Lords
“Metaxas tells the tale of Wilberforce with great energy, sympathy, clarity, and aplomb.” –Thomas Howard, author Dove Descending: a journey into T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”
“Spectacular!” – The Christian Century
“Fluidly told… a compelling example of faith that leads not to meditation only, but to reflection.” – First Things
“This may be the definitive book about Wilberforce. There are some that may be more detailed, but none which are so well-written, so engaging, so fabulously inspiring.”– Byron Borger, BookNotes
“I have not been able to put it down. It totally captivated me. Not only is it beautifully written, but the story is truly “an amazing grace”. It is a book I treasure and will share with my friends.” – Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, author, The Soul of a Lion
The cavemen need help! Their king has forgotten all about them — all because of the horrible Swamp Creatures that live in a suspicious green swamp.Learn More
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas comes an inspiring biography of the most influential man in modern history, Martin Luther.Learn More
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas comes “If You Can Keep It,” a new book that is part history and part manifesto, steeped in a critical analysis of our founding fathers’ original intentions for America. Two hundred and forty years after the Declaration of Independence, it examines how we as a nation are living up to our founders’ lofty vision for liberty and justice.Learn More
In his eagerly anticipated follow-up to the enormously successful Seven Men, New York Times #1 best-selling author Eric Metaxas gives us seven captivating portraits of some of history’s greatest women, each of whom changed the course of history by following God’s call upon their lives – as women.Learn More
What are miracles, and why do so many people believe in them? What do they tell us about ourselves? And what do we do with experiences that we cannot explain?Learn More
What is a man and what make a man great? Metaxas offers seven exquisitely crafted portraits of widely known–but not well understood–great men from history. You’ll be inspired by the lives these seven men lived, often in the face of overwhelming adversity, and always at heroic sacrifice to themselves for the sake of others.Learn More
After the double happy ending of Uncle Mugsy and the Terrible Twins of Christmas, we find Mugsy happily married to Margaret Dogmont and father figure to the Twins. The new family is celebrating the Fourth of July when who should arrive unannounced but Mugsy’s English mother-in-law, Lady Hortensia! She’s come to make proper Englishmen […]Learn More
As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. One of these was Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a pastor and author, known as much for such spiritual classics as The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, as for his 1945 execution in a concentration camp for his part in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.Learn More
We all have questions about Jesus, but very few of us get the answers we’re looking for — if the answers even exist! Do they? Where (in heaven’s name) do you go to find out? New York Times #1 bestselling author Eric Metaxas understands how hard it can be to get hard truths, and that’s why he has written this hilarious, entertaining guide to the most influential single Person to have ever lived on the face of the earth.Learn More
Mega-best-selling author/illustrator Nancy Tillman (On the Night You Were Born) has teamed up with Eric Metaxas to produce It’s Time to Sleep, My Love, a gorgeously illustrated lullaby picture book destined to become the bedtime children’s classic of a new generation.Learn More
The long-awaited sequel to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (but were afraid to ask), Everything ELSE carries on the conversation to explore more questions that are commonly asked about the nature and existence of God.Learn More
We all have questions about God. But very few of us get the answers we’re looking for–if those answers even exist! Do they? Where (in heaven’s name) do you go to find out? Eric Metaxas understands. That’s why he’s written this refreshingly down-to-earth take on the big questions everyone asks (but not always out loud)…Learn More
This entertaining and historical story shows that the actual hero of the Thanksgiving was neither white nor Indian, but God. In 1608, English traders came to Massachusetts and captured a 12-year old Indian, Squanto, and sold him into slavery. He was raised by Christians and taught faith in God. Ten years later he was sent home to America. Upon arrival, he learned an epidemic had wiped out his entire village. But God had plans for Squanto. God delivered a Thanksgiving miracle: an English-speaking Indian living in the exact place where the Pilgrims land in a strange new world.Learn More
S is for Samson, whose hair held his strength, provided it grew to a certain length. So it’s good to be clean-cut and handsome, but not to be clean-cut and Samson.Learn More
Backward-flowing waterflows! Invisible monuments! Ferocious meat-eating deer! A chicken egg in the shape of the Taj Mahal! Eric Metaxas has combed the far corners of the known and the unknown world to assemble this book chock full of startling, uncanny, and often seriously frightening phenomena. Marc Dennis has converted them into mind-bending, eye-popping drawings. Are they possible? Don’t You Believe It!Learn More