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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, BA’00, will discuss his new book, Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country, on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Vanderbilt University. Beshear will be in conversation with a special guest beginning at 1 p.m. in Benton Chapel at Vanderbilt Divinity School, 411 21st Ave. S. Doors will open at noon.
The event is hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries and Dialogue Vanderbilt in collaboration with Parnassus Books.
Tickets for the talk are $33.00 each (plus Eventbrite fees) and include one general admission seat and a signed copy of Go and Do Likewise, to be published on Sept. 22 by St. Martin’s Press. There will be no signing line for book personalizations or photos with the author at this event.
About the book
In his compelling and insightful book, Beshear reclaims faith as a force for good in the age of Trump and rebukes those who use it to harm and discriminate.
Beshear, currently in his second term as governor of Kentucky, is the grandson of Baptist lay ministers, the son of a previous Kentucky governor, and a leading Democratic voice against the Trump administration. In Go and Do Likewise, he shares what his own faith has meant to him, how it has informed his family and his public life, and how it serves as a rebuke to how faith has been hijacked, profaned, misused and corrupted by some public figures. By regrounding faith in compassion and kindness, Beshear says, we can start to heal as a country.
Go and Do Likewise takes its title from the story of the Good Samaritan. In the parable, Jesus describes how the Good Samaritan, a despised “other” at the time, stopped to help a stranger who had been beaten and left for dead and then calls on his followers to do likewise and care for everyone. Organized around the teachings of Jesus—stories of healing, justice, forgiveness, welcome and moral clarity—Go and Do Likewise transcends politics to remind Americans of the values grounded in service and acceptance. It is a book for everyone who believes in justice and doing right by their neighbor, whether or not they support organized religion at all.
Clear-eyed, compelling and unusually candid, Go and Do Likewise is a hopeful book by one of America’s brightest political lights.
About the author
Beshear is a born-and-raised Kentuckian. Before he was elected governor in 2019, he served as the state’s attorney general beginning in 2015, working as a lawyer on behalf of the government for the people of Kentucky. Beshear and his wife, Britainy, have two children, Will and Lila, and a dog, Winnie. His family attends Beargrass Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where both Andy and Britainy serve as deacons. He is a 2000 graduate of Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s in political science and anthropology and holds a juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law.