Book Description
"We've got some difficult days ahead," civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., told a crowd gathered at Memphis's Clayborn Temple on April 3, 1968. "But it really doesn't matter to me now because I've been to the mountaintop. . . . And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."
These prohetic words, uttered the day before his assassination, challenged those he left behind to see that his "promised land" of racial equality became a reality; a reality to which King devoted the last twelve years of his life.
These words and other are commemorated here in the only major one-volume collection of this seminal twentieth-century American prophet's writings, speeches, interviews, and autobiographical reflections. A Testament of Hope contains Martin Luther King, Jr.'s essential thoughts on nonviolence, social policy, integration, black nationalism, the ethics of love and hope, and more.
Customer Reviews:
A Legacy of Hope - Mighty and Powerful and Beautifully Crafted.......2007-09-21
As a Hispanic-American increasingly involved in speaking out about social issues and looking for inspiration, I stumbed upon this incredible book.
I have since learned to love the writings and speeches of Doctor Martin Luther King. They are mighty and powerful and beautifully crafted. Biblical in their content and style, they are tremendously moving. They simplify the complicated and elevate the important!
His words ring out as loud and clear today as they did some forty years ago. For example, in one of his last and most radical speeches, "Where Do We Go From Here?" Doctor King exhorted:
"Let us go out with a 'divine dissatisfaction!
Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of Creeds and an anemia of Deeds!
Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and dispair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice!
Let us be dissatisfied until those that life on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security!
Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history and every family is living in a decent sanitary home!"
This book is recommended for anyone looking for wisdom and inspiration and wishing to learn more about Doctor Martin Luther King and America's civil rights movement.
Buy it! Read it! And get involved in the battle for social justice for all Americans.
A thorough and moving chronicle of a heroic man and Christian.......2007-07-29
A suggested read for anyone (emphasis). Through the essays, abridged novels, and interviews, one can gather a personal and philosophical history of MLK, a summary of the civil rights movement, and a greater understanding of life and religion (which are inextricably attached really). I particularly appreciated the notion that civil rights was really about human rights on a global scale. He oft points out that poor whites, Latinos, and Asians, faced the same issues in the U. S. and across the globe.
A central theme is the principles of nonviolent resistance, which are essentially (if properly understood) unbiased and unwavering compassion and respect for (all) human life. I believe this is the single greatest area of failure in our current society. The book has entrenched that position further, with a deepened understanding of what it means, where the problems have exhibited themselves, and how we might improve upon the situation.
I must say as a native Alabamian and habitant of Birmingham for almost 10 years, the book has particular relevance to me. However, the history chronicled within is the history of man and is therefore applicable to everyone.
The great American voice for Freedom "I know one day we as a people will reach the Promised Land" .......2006-11-22
Martin Luther King Jr. the great American Civil Rights leader was a voice not only for black people in the United States, but for Mankind as a whole. He dreamed but he did not dream for black people alone but for every single American, and every single human being. Essentially his message was one of hope.
He was perhaps the most powerful speaker the United States had in the twentieth century. His 'I have a dream' speech on the Mall in Washington at the height of the Civil Rights movements was a call for and affirmation of human dignity and freedom.
He spoke in the language and rhythms of the Bible.
In his Nobel Prize Speech he articulated his faith in nonviolence as a means for human liberation. While it might be possible to question the validity of the non- violent option when confronting the most ruthless forms of totalitarian Evil it nonetheless is tribute to the spirit of King's deep Christian faith that he so passionately preached the 'non- violent doctrine'.
This book is a testimony to one of the truly great Americans of the twentieth - century. A man who by his example , by his deeds, ( And his words too are great deeds) gave hope and freedom to so many.
This work could not be recommended more highly.
The Best Reading In a Decade.......2006-03-21
I thought that I knew a lot about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but this book has really opened up to me his true character. As I read his precious speeches, articles and books I am so happy that I purchased this compilation of Dr. Kings' works and I have been given a special glimpse into the life of such a genuine and extraordinary individual.
An Indispensible Collection.......2005-12-01
A Testament of Hope is indispensible for a complete understanding of MLK Jr. the man. He was so much more than a monolithic figure of the Civil Rights movement. He was a pastor, theologian, philosopher, diplomat, husband, and father. A Testament of Hope helps the reader to grasp the multifaceted life of this icon of the twentieth century. This book lets the reader into the very human life of MLK Jr. Nowhere have I discovered a more cogent explanation of passive resistance than in the various speeches and essays contained in this book. If you are engaged in the struggle for civil rights or if you seek to better understand modern humanity more completely add this book to your library and consult it often.
PAX
Erik
Amazon.com
One of the greatest of American stories has found its great chronicler in Taylor Branch. Beginning with Parting the Waters in 1988, followed 10 years later by Pillar of Fire, and closing now with At Canaan's Edge, Branch has given the short life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the nonviolent revolution he led the epic treatment they deserve. The three books of Branch's America in the King Years trilogy are lyrical and dramatic, social history as much as biography, woven from the ever more complex strands of King's movement, with portraits of figures like Lyndon Johnson, Bob Moses, J. Edgar Hoover, and Diane Nash as compelling as that of his central character.
King's movement may have been nonviolent, but his times were not, and each of Branch's volumes ends with an assassination: JFK, then Malcolm X, and finally King's murder in Memphis. We know that's where At Canaan's Edge is headed, but it starts with King's last great national success, the marches for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Once again, the violent response to nonviolent protest brought national attention and support to King's cause, and within months his sometime ally Lyndon Johnson was able to push through the Voting Rights Act. But alongside those events, forces were gathering that would pull King's movement apart and threaten his national leadership. The day after Selma's "Bloody Sunday," the first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam, while five days after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, the Watts riots began in Los Angeles. As the escalating carnage in Vietnam and the frustrating pace of reform at home drove many in the movement, most notably Stokely Carmichael, away from nonviolence, King kept to his most cherished principle and followed where its logic took him: to war protests that broke his alliance with Johnson and to a widening battle against poverty in the North as well as the South that caused both critics and allies to declare his movement unfocused and irrelevant.
Branch knows that you can't tell King's story without following these many threads, and he spends nearly as much time in Johnson's war councils as he does in the equally fractious meetings of King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Branch's knotty, allusive style can be challenging, but it vividly evokes the density of those days and the countless demands on King's manic stoicism. The whirlwind finally slows in the book's final pages for a bittersweet tour through King's last hours at the Lorraine Motel--King horsing around with his brother and friends and calling his mother (in between visits to his mistresses), Jesse Jackson rehearsing movement singers, an FBI agent watching through binoculars from across the street--that complete his work of humanizing a great man forever in danger of flattening into an icon. --Tom Nissley
Timeline of a Trilogy
Taylor Branch's America in the King Years series is both a biography of Martin Luther King and a history of his age. No timeline can do justice to its wide cast of characters and its intricate web of incident, but here are some of the highlights, which might be useful as a scorecard to the trilogy's nearly 3,000 pages.
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Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 | |
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May: At age 25, King gives his first sermon as pastor-designate of Montgomery's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. |
1954 |
May: French surrender to Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu. Unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board outlaws segregated public education. |
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December: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott, which King is drafted to lead. |
1955 |
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October: King spends his first night in jail, following his participation in an Atlanta sit-in. |
1960 |
February: Four students attempting to integrate a Greensboro, North Carolina, lunch counter spark a national sit-in movement.
April: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is founded.
November: Election of President John F. Kennedy |
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May: The Freedom Rides begin, drawing violent responses as they challenge segregation throughout the South. King supports the riders during an overnight siege in Montgomery. |
1961 |
July: SNCC worker Bob Moses arrives for his first summer of voter registration in rural Mississippi.
August: East German soldiers seal off West Berlin behind the Berlin Wall. |
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March: J. Edgar Hoover authorizes the bugging of Stanley Levinson, King's closest white advisor. |
1962 |
September: James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi under massive federal protection. |
April: King, imprisoned for demonstrating in Birmingham, writes the "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
May: Images of police violence against marching children in Birmingham rivet the country.
August: King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech before hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington.
September: The Ku Klux Klan bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church kills four young girls. |
1963 |
June: Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers assassinated.
November: President Kennedy assassinated. | |
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Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 | |
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November: Lyndon Johnson, in his first speech before Congress as president, promises to push through Kennedy's proposed civil rights bill. |
March: King meets Malcolm X for the only time during Senate filibuster of civil rights legislation.
June: King joins St. Augustine, Florida, movement after months of protests and Klan violence.
October: King awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and campaigns for Johnson's reelection.
November: Hoover calls King "the most notorious liar in the country" and the FBI sends King an anonymous "suicide package" containing scandalous surveillance tapes. |
1964 |
January: Johnson announces his "War on Poverty."
March: Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam following conflict with its leader, Elijah Muhammad.
June: Hundreds of volunteers arrive in the South for SNCC's Freedom Summer, three of whom are soon murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
July: Johnson signs Civil Rights Act outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
August: Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing military force in Vietnam. Democratic National Convention rebuffs the request by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to be seated in favor of all-white state delegation.
November: Johnson wins a landslide reelection. |
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January: King's first visit to Selma, Alabama, where mass meetings and demonstrations will build through the winter. |
1965 |
February: Malcolm X speaks in Selma in support of movement, three weeks before his assassination in New York by Nation of Islam members. | |
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At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 | |
March: Voting rights movement in Selma peaks with "Bloody Sunday" police attacks and, two weeks later, a successful march of thousands to Montgomery.
August: King rebuffed by Los Angeles officials when he attempts to advocate reforms after the Watts riots. |
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March: First U.S. combat troops arrive in South Vietnam. Johnson's "We Shall Overcome" speech makes his most direct embrace of the civil rights movement.
May: Vietnam "teach-in" protest in Berkeley attracts 30,000.
June: Influential federal Moynihan Report describes the "pathologies" of black family structure.
August: Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act. Five days later, the Watts riots begin in Los Angeles.
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January: King moves his family into a Chicago slum apartment to mark his first sustained movement in a Northern city.
June: King and Stokely Carmichael continue James Meredith's March Against Fear after Meredith is shot and wounded. Carmichael gives his first "black power" speech.
July: King's marches for fair housing in Chicago face bombs, bricks, and "white power" shouts. |
1966 |
February: Operation Rolling Thunder, massive U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, begins.
May: Stokely Carmichael wins the presidency of SNCC and quickly turns the organization away from nonviolence.
October: National Organization for Women founded, modeled after black civil rights groups. |
April: King's speech against the Vietnam War at New York's Riverside Church raises a storm of criticism
December: King announces plans for major campaign against poverty in Washington, D.C., for 1968. |
1967 |
May: Huey Newton leads Black Panthers in armed demonstration in California state assembly.
June: Johnson nominates former NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.
July: Riots in Newark and Detroit.
October: Massive mobilization against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. |
March: King joins strike of Memphis sanitation workers.
April: King gives his "Mountaintop" speech in Memphis. A day later, he is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. |
1968 |
January: In Tet Offensive, Communist guerillas stage a surprise coordinated attack across South Vietnam.
March: Johnson cites divisions in the country over the war for his decision not to seek reelection in 1968. | |
Book Description
At Canaan's Edge concludes America in the King Years, a three-volume history that will endure as a masterpiece of storytelling on American race, violence, and democracy. Pulitzer Prize-winner and bestselling author Taylor Branch makes clear in this magisterial account of the civil rights movement that Martin Luther King, Jr., earned a place next to James Madison and Abraham Lincoln in the pantheon of American history.
Customer Reviews:
Thank you, J. Edgar .......2007-05-27
This is the third book in Taylor Branch's masterful series on Martin Luther King and his times, but don't feel you have to read the first two before picking this one up. I read the second volume, Pillar of Fire : America in the King Years 1963-65 (America in the King Years) before the first, Parting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954-63 (America in the King Years) and managed to survive. Each book stands on its own as a masterful work of historical scholarship and dramatic narrative.
One difference for me is that this third volume is the first in the series that records events I can actually remember. It is astonishing to think of how dramatically America has changed in my lifetime, and how much of that change is the result of Rev. King's courage. In a recent biography of Alexander Hamilton it was suggested that Hamilton may have been the most important American who had never become President, and he was more important than most Presidents. A similar case can be made for King.
Rev. King is obviously central to the book, but the book offers vivid portraits of his colleagues Andrew Young, Julian Bond and the ever ambitious Jesse Jackson; rivals such as Stokely Carmichael and partner/rival Lyndon Johnson as well as Bobby Kennedy.
During the time described in this book, the Vietnam war escalated to such a level that it overwhelmed the civil rights story as the central news story of the day. King grappled with the issue, and with taking on a President he regarded as the "best civil rights president in history". His conflict between his obligation as an advocate of non-violence to speak out against the war and his civil rights work at home make for some of the most compelling reading in the book and show how it tore the movement apart. Newspaper columnist Carl Rowan is seen blasting King for his criticism of the U.S. Army, which was (and perhaps still is) the most effectively integrated institution in the country.
It is impossible to read this book, especially the sections relating to Vietnam, and not reflect on the current circumstances in Iraq. The most startling difference is in the character of the central players in the White House. Johnson's grappling with the issues in Vietnam, struggling to find a solution to stop the killing before eventually realizing the only possible solution involves him standing down, is a startling contrast to our current smirking, self-centered, political hack of a commander-in-chief.
Another contrast with our times is to realize that in many ways, King's civil rights work in the South was a campaign against terrorism. We are so busy patting ourselves on the back with the idea that "it can't happen here" we forget that our history includes numerous homegrown terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. In general, the book recalls a time when people could look to the federal government to be a problem solver.
Finally, a word of thanks to J. Edgar Hoover, the paranoid cross dresser who seems to have tapped half the phone lines in America during his interminable time as director of the FBI. (Okay, so the book also recalls a time when the feds were an active part of the problem - it is a full, nuanced portrait of a complicated time.) The fact that Branch was able to rely on first hand conversations for so much of his material clearly added a lot to this remarkable book.
Death & Transfiguration .......2007-03-15
This third and final volume of Branch Taylor's trilogy is of all the three the most unambiguously tragic. At times, reading the previous two volumes, I was so heartbroken at the succession of tragic setbacks in the movement that I wondered when and where the great, decisive victories against segregation ended. And ACE is of all the three the one with the most devastating setbacks. It leaves one to ponder if the Civil Rights Movement eventually achieved its immediate goals so sweepingly precisely because the white power structure finally recognized --so to speak--that those goals were compatible with its continued flourishing.
For readers interesting in buying this book: bear in mind that this trilogy is to all intents and purposes a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is NOT a hagiography; Branch frequently mentions the roiling emotions and infidelities of MLK. When contemporary observers remark that a particular appearance or speech fell flat, Branch says so. Perhaps Branch knows this narrative technique is more effective at inspiring admiration than unalloyed praise would have been; perhaps not. But in truth, it's difficult to imagine any sensitive reader not being filled with wonder that such a moral giant like King could even exist.
Rather than duplicate the effort of the other reviewers (particularly the excellent review by G. Bestick, posted below on January 24, 2006), I want to comment on something that has not been addressed by the others. I believe the single most important theme in the trilogy was the exposition of King's doctrine of "nonviolence." I use quotes because "nonviolence" is such an inadequate word to describe the doctrine. Elsewhere, Branch alludes to King's opposition to "enemy-ism," in which King rejects lines of reasoning that culminate in demonization or vilification of one's adversaries. First, King's doctrine acknowledged the common humanity of all people; humans deviated in different paths of moral conduct depending on reasons that are compelling--perhaps irresistible--at the time. Perpetrators are also victims. Second, the resolution of injustice through violence was untenable; the oppressor in any relationship would always win any challenge that employed violence, if for no other reason than because the victorious liberator would become a new oppressor. Third, the practice of nonviolence required unusual discipline and courage, and King was able to transmit the latter through the force of his oratory.
In POF (please see my review for that, also), the rival doctrine was belligerent posturing as practiced by the Nation of Islam and by the segregationist authorities. The upheaval of the '64 elections tended to reflect the loss of face of an earlier generation of white elites, and their replacement by redneck "enforcers." While the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) remained true to the principles of nonviolence, a major ally, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) repudiated nonviolence in favor of Black Power. The new SNCC was utterly ineffectual and quickly vanished. The Black Panthers was doomed from the start with its scorn of all "white" ideologies and its lack of any coherent replacement. New converts to the ideology of self-defensive violence like Charles Evers could not even bring themselves to target known killers; Byron de la Beckwith, universally known to have murdered Ever's brother Medgar, was never threatened by the SNCC.
White supremacist violence now became endemic; before, there were exceptional cases such as the 9/15/63 bombing of a church in Birmingham; but cases of ambush and murder proliferated dramatically after 1965. The destabilization of white supremacist violence now challenged the very survival of American institutions and Southern police forces increasingly intervened against their former Klan allies.
Looming over everything was the Vietnam War, which for King was the most urgent injustice he faced. Johnson hated the war (Stanley Karnow's *Vietnam* confirms this) but was unable to accept defeat in it; King was unable to compromise with a known evil, and the most conservative 60% of white American public opinion dreaded facing up to an unbeatable foe. Frustration and ambient racism further stimulated conservative support for the war, while the fiscal woes inflicted by the war extinguished every remaining trace of Johnson's Great Society. The failure of progressive initiatives, when void of King's own nonviolent doctrines, was universal and inevitable. At the time of his death, King was not so much defeated or even overwhelmed, as he was offset in a floodtide of squalid reaction.
After King, the depressing deluge; and after that, his stunning achievements, like a field of tulip bulbs, bloomed amid the receding glacier. But the triumph of nonviolence was like the glimmers of lightning in a summer electric storm, flashing without warning in random corners of the sky.
Must read for students if the civil rights movement.......2007-03-03
If you are a student of the civil rights movement in particular or the 1960s in general you must read Taylor Branch's book on Martin Luther King. The book guides you momement by moment through King's hardfought but peaceful successes at Montomery & Selma and throughout the South and as the movement moved north with less than peaceful outcomes in Watts, Detroit, New Jersey, etc. Very interesting and insightful read.
must read for all americans.......2007-02-18
this is one of the best history books i've ever read. in fact, it transcends the history genre. canaan's edge is first and foremost about one of the most courageous men in american history -- martin luther king jr. of course, king didn't lead the 60's civil rights movement by himself -- branch's book shows the courage of many people known and unknown.
it also casts other historical figures in a new light. primary among these, for me, is lyndon johnson, who comes thru in these pages as a brave supporter of civil rights, whose civil rights record was eclipsed by his mistakes with the vietnam war. beautifully written, moving, filled with people and powerful vignettes, this is a must read for all americans.
Bringing Reality to History.......2006-12-06
For many who were young during the turbulent 60s, this era has a mythical feel to it. Great figures have been romanticized, whether it was Kennedy and Camelot or Martin Luther King, Jr. and "I Have a Dream." Taylor Branch has found a way to bring reality to those tales. He refuses to glamorize his subject; refuses to sanitize his main character. For an epic look at a story smack in the epicenter of American history, "At Canaan's Edge" is the place to stand.
Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.
Amazon.com
Pillar of Fire is the second volume of Taylor Branch's magisterial three-volume history of America during the life of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Branch's thesis, as he explains in the introduction, is that "King's life is the best and most important metaphor for American history in the watershed postwar years," but this is not just a biography. Instead it is a work of history, with King at its focal point. The tumultuous years that Branch covers saw the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the beginnings of American disillusionment with the war in Vietnam, and, of course, the civil rights movement that King led, a movement that transformed America as the nation finally tried to live up to the ideals on which it was founded.
Book Description
In Pillar of Fire, the second volume of his America in the King Years trilogy, Taylor Branch portrays the civil rights era at its zenith. The first volume, Parting the Waters, won the Pulitzer Prize for History. It is a monumental chronicle of a movement that stirred from Southern black churches to challenge the national conscience during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. In this masterly continuation of the narrative, Branch recounts the climactic struggles as they commanded the national and international stage.
Pillar of Fire covers the far-flung upheavals of the years 1963 to 1965 -- Dallas, St. Augustine, Mississippi Freedom Summer, LBJ's Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Vietnam, Selma. And it provides a frank, revealing portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- haunted by blackmail, factionalism, and hatred while he tried to hold the nonviolent movement together as a dramatic force in history. Allies, rivals, and opponents addressed racial issues that went deeper than fair treatment at bus stops or lunch counters. Participants on all sides stretched themselves and their country to the breaking point over the meaning of simple words: dignity, equal votes, equal souls.
Branch's gallery of historic characters also includes:
Malcolm X, who challenged King's vision of nonviolent integration and lived under threat of death from the Nation of Islam.
Lyndon Johnson, who believed racial conflict was destroying his political base in the South and threatening his dream to end poverty.
J. Edgar Hoover, under whose direction the FBI, with Attorney General Robert Kennedy's approval, spied on King with wiretaps and bugs, and yet solved the most heinous racial crimes of the era.
Diane Nash, the passionate leader behind sit-ins and Freedom Rides, whose determination shaped the Selma voting rights movement.
Abraham Heschel, the Hasidic theologian who bonded with King in devotion to the Hebrew prophets.
Robert Moses, the Mississippi SNCC leader who finally came undone over the human suffering caused by his Freedom Summer.
Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper who commanded a powerful voice for the unlettered.
Pillar of Fire takes readers inside the dramas that shook every American institution, from the local pulpit to the Presidency. We disappear with courageous young people into Mississippi's feudal Parchman Penitentiary. We absorb the shock of a single Presidential election in 1964 that revolutionized the structure of partisan politics. We follow Northern rabbis summoned by King, and Mary Peabody, mother of the governor of Massachusetts, into the segregated jails of St. Augustine, Florida. We witness the Shakespearean conflicts between Lyndon Johnson and King and Hoover and Robert Kennedy.
Branch brings to bear fifteen years of research -- archival investigation; nearly two thousand interviews: new primary sources, from FBI wiretaps to White House telephone recordings -- in a seminal work of history. Pillar of Fire captures the intensity of the legendary King years, when the movement broke down walls between races, regions, sexes, and religions, and between America and the larger world. Its struggle to rescue and redeem, its victories and defeats, its failings and sacrifices gave rise to opposing tides that still dominate the national debate about justice and democratic government. The story of this movement is an incandescent chapter in America's distinctive quest for freedom.
Customer Reviews:
The Angle of Moment.......2007-03-15
With 30 other reviews for this book (so far), it would seem that everything that needs to be said about this book has been said already. And I would second the praise for the book. It is vital reading for any student of American history. It is well written; indeed, I felt the writing style was more literary and more suspenseful than PTW. The allocation of styles is sensible; the straightforward, conservative narrative style of PTW is helpful for readers new to the subject, while POF follows with a somewhat more daring style of narration, for readers now familiar with the main characters.
What I believe other reviews have not really done is assess the book's treatment of the subject matter, or what alternative choices Mr. Branch could have made. Readers would be advised to note this is essentially a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr, and not so much an account of the civil rights movement. Not only that, unlike Garrow's *Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Perennial Classics)*, it addresses MLK as a thinker and philosopher of nonviolence[*], not as a political actor. Every element in Branch's books is marshaled to illustrate or test King's doctrine of nonviolence. While Branch possibly had other motives, a lot of the criticisms of his book can be explained away with this hypothesis.
(Examples of criticism include the meager attention to other characters in the Civil Rights Movement, brief references to the women, or lack of any sort of radical analysis. While Branch has responded to criticism of his male-centric account of this period, I will merely add that women--white or black--seldom posed a challenge to nonviolence. Likewise, Branch does not attempt to assess the forces driving racism itself, and what caused those forces suddenly to weaken or capitulate. This is about a philosophical approach.)
The rival approach to King's philosophy of nonviolence, during this period, was a posture of confrontation (adopted by the Nation of Islam and by King's adversaries in Florida and Mississippi). "Posturing" is an intermediate stance between violence and nonviolence, and it was the choice of a surprising number of white adversaries still hoping to bluff their way out of a violent confrontation. At this time, the appeal to "states rights" had proven to be a legalistic shell game of evasion, and one doomed to end badly for the segregationists. At the same time, the Nation of Islam was adopting militant rhetoric it could not seriously dream of putting into practice. By adopting a discipline of confrontation and central control, the NOI was able to create an entirely new conception of the African American in the minds of white Americans, as a potentially fierce and truculent contender in America's endless civic brawls.
In both cases, the strategy of posturing violence was to collapse in internal struggles. The whites who sought to discourage King's soul power in Mississippi pushed the envelope of posturing--of intimidation and belligerent confrontation--to the point that the ruling white caste began to lose face and succumbed to the enforcer "rednecks." The NOI split along personality lines, with Malcolm X being driven from the inner circle of Elijah Muhammad, then forming a charismatic dissenting ummah of non-sectarian Muslims, and exposing the deep contradictions in the NOI's radical pretensions.
While the NOI plays a smaller role in the book than I have implied, it is fitting that the book begins with a NOI confrontation with the police, and ends with a deadly confrontation between NOI and its most famous ex-member, Malcolm X. The ideal of establishing Black Pride through a personality cult was to prove an unmitigated disaster for the NOI, while the ideal of defeating nonviolent action through constant state harassment was to severely wound the South's ruling class.
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[*] In my review of *At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (America in the King Years)* I address King's doctrine of "nonviolence" in more detail; but "nonviolence" is a very inadequate term to describe the concept.
Branch's Trilogy.......2006-08-11
Volume one of Branch's biography of King, though interesting most of the time, suffers from Branch's sometime tortuous syntax and lack of focus, it seems. _Parting the Waters_, overall, was excellent, but I only wish that it flowed always when it only flowed some of the time.
Beginning now to read _Pillar of Fire_, volume two of the trilogy, I am again struck with Branch's convoluted and twised syntax, which smooths itself out at some point only to become twisted once more. Also, volume two seems, at the start, to be extremely disjointed, hopping from place to place with no cohesive story. Most of the first 100 pages of _Pillar of Fire_ is a repeat of information already convered in volume one of the Trilogy.
I expected volume two to begin right off with how the new Johnson Administration was going to approach the Civil Right's Movement, and what further things good ol' Hoover was going to work up. But so far-- after 100 pages-- the book still sits, apparently, in the Kennedy Administration, with very little referencing of King, the Kennedy Administration, or Hoover. Instead, volume two simply rehashes, in sometime tortuous syntax, old information.
Nevertheless, I will continue to read volume two. The trilogy is very good, for the most part. Style is a thing the reader adapts to, after a few hours of reading. The only problem with Branch is that though I have accustomed myself to Branch's stylitical quirks, it seems I am forever going in and out of catching his tempo and flow.
Alan Bernardo
Impossible not to be a letdown.......2006-07-20
Any follow up to Parting the Waters is destined to be anticlimatic. Concedingly, there are a few drawbacks to Pillar of Fire. Nonetheless, this is another classic work from Branch.
General Remarks:
1. About half of the first section of the book is a summary about the "tides" leading to the Birmingham campaign in 1963. Accordingly, it has a text book feel and it quite bland, especially if you just finished reading Parting the Waters. However, the summary will be beneficial if you need a memory jogger to prepare for the history to continue.
2. Fortunately, mixed in with the summary is fresh narrative ranging from "Muslims in Los Angeles" to "LBJ in St. Augustine"
3. The second section, "Freedom Summer," is a return to vintage Branch. The author's presentation of history is captivating. Branch somehow smoothly intertwines all perspectives and every angle in his depiction of freedom summer, zooming out to global standpoints and in for microscopic analyses of King's conscience.
4. Like Parting the Waters, Pillar is rife with suspense, plot turns, romance, treachery, violence, sex, and political intrigue. Even if this were a novel its literary value would merit reading it. But this stuff is true, amazingly, and contains a ton of documentation to prove it.
5. Better yet, this book is philosophically stimulating, inspirational, educational, and utterly poignant.
6. Ironically, this book should have been much longer. Character development could stand to be more thorough in places. Accordingly, some defining episodes (especially St. Augustine) seem rushed.
Final comment: Branch provides an in depth, intimate portrait of the movement and its principal actors. Pillar of Fire is a rich mix of fascinating biography and political intrigue, captured within a multi-dimensional approach to history (intellectual, social, cultural, political, religious), and held together with a concentration on Martin Luther King.
Keeps the Fire Aflame...Pillared Story of the Shaping of America.......2006-05-15
Taylor Branch has certainly done better work with his first Pulitzer Prize winning Civil Rights movement work, "Parting the Waters,' but that doesn't mean you should be brushing aside this good history writing in "Pillar of Fire." There's a quote out there...that I can't seem to find right now...that says something to the effect of, "If we don't learn from history, we will find ourselves repeating mistakes already made." In the realm of social justice and American Civil Rights history there is no finer capturing of our society's mistakes and the heroic struggle undertaken by civil rights movement leaders than the history written by Taylor Branch on the subject. The entire trilogy should be required reading for all liberal arts majors (all other under grad majors for that matter) as an education in the important history that shaped the America we know today.
"Pillar of Fire," captures just three years of the Civil Rights movement from 1963-1965, but they were chock-filled with pivital and formative events. Highlights from Branch's book are the FBI-wrangling led by J. Edgar Hoover, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, assassinations of Malcom X and Medgar Evars, the mission creep of Vietnam, and the beginnings of tying in the civil rights movement protest to a larger anti-war protest movement. My criticism, though minor may it be, of "Pillar of Fire," is that whereas Branch's first work, "Parting the Waters," read like a deftly crafted geniusly written page turner of a suspense novel, "Pillar of Fire," comes across more like a traditional history book. Branch's writing genius lies in his ability to bring together seemingly disparate events while mixing in elements of pop culture and everyday life to give you a good feel for the "sign of the times," at that time. Where Branch was able to tie in the events in America pre-1965 and do it with panache in "Parting the Waters," his efforts in "Pillar of Fire," aren't so focused. Call it a sophomore slump if you will, but "Pillar of Fire," got a little too bogged down in White House and Capital Hill wankerings and didn't focus on the immediacy of the drama of what was happening on the street down South during those years. Don't let this deter you from reading "Pillar of Fire," though...its just a minor Branch-ian misstep.
Where Branch's work really shines is his recounting of the odd and gangster and cult-like machinations of the Nation of Islam. He also captures the juxtaposition of Malcom X's approach to Civil Rights versus MLK's non-violent warfare approach quite nicely. In hindsight it seems MLK's method of bringing about social justice change through sacrifice and love proved more lasting and effective. Also of interest is J. Edgar Hoover's odd fixation on MLK's personal life and using that to try to bring down the man and the movement. If people are concerned about the "Patriot Act," today infringing on personal rights and intelligence oversight...just read what America was like in the 60's with the Hoover-led FBI getting into everybody's business.
All in all, Branch's "Pillar of Fire," is a high quality read and well-written piece of history...a history that is integral to the fabric of America today. The Civil Rights movement was nothing short of a revolutionary and/or civil war in America and the re-telling of this history reveals it as such. Run, don't walk, to get a hold of all of Branch's books from Amazon to get up to speed on all things Civil Rights movement.
--MMW
Indispensible about Malcolm X.......2006-04-15
I have been writing, studying, and speaking about Malcolm X since a year or so after he died. I have had the privilege to work with and learnt about Malcolm from people who worked with Malcolm politically, people who he asked to publish his writing and whose views he has recommended. I have read too many books about Malcolm to believe. I think this book provides the best actual picture of the time line of Malcolm X's life in his last years, the ferocity of the physical and political assault launched against him, and the facts of Malcolm'x struggle to break through to world and national politics.
In saying that, I am saying branch produces good documented history and doesn't pretend to offer much interpretation, which is OK.
After all these statements about this book and others, the best thing to read about Malcolm X is the serious of books printed in Malcolm's own words published by Pathfinder Press in cooperation with Malcolm's family, a publishing project begun my Malcolm himself while he was alive. Read him in his own words, not someone else's opinions.
There is one book about rather than by Malcolm that I recommend. Pathfinder's Malcolm X, the Evolution of a revolutionary by the late George Breitman, the editor that Malcolm selected to edit his books. George was a long time revolutionist, a fighter for Black rights since the 1930s, but also an incredibly scrupulous editor, and very judicious. Too many people try to put their own words in Malcolm's mouth. GB never did that and takes a reasoned view of the motion Malcolm went through in the period since he left the Muslims.
If someone knows better books about Malcolm X published in recent years, contact me, I will check them out!
This book isn't bad in charting what was going on in the civil rights movement at the time in a very honest way that seems rare in this era of self-serving hagiagrophy of King and others of his ilk.
Book Description
This volume in the Classics of Western Spirituality offers a unique selection of texts, some newly translated, by Martin Luther. These texts represent the varieties of ways Luther understood how one believed and behaved as a Christian.
This comprehensive collection includes both his critique of late medieval spiritualities that he inherited and his various constructive proposals. The book is designed for the reader to discover the rich complex of issues that Luther contributes to the discussion of spirituality.
The collection is divided into three sections of fresh and modified translations: Luther's Spirituality in a Late-Medieval Context, Teaching the New Spirituality, and The New Path to Prayer which also includes various songs. The volume includes Luther's spiritual classics like the German edition of the Freedom of a Christian, the Magnificat, The Sermon at Coburg on Cross and Suffering, letters of consolation, biblical prefaces and commentaries like Psalm 117 and 118, a Simple Way to Pray, and selections from the Large Catechism. There is nothing like it on the market.
Average customer rating:
- Nothing short of inspiring
- Accurate & Intructive but not the Full Picture
- A Must-Read for Every American
- like Malcolm X's autobiography
- Excellent
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The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. , and
Clayborne Carson
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
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ASIN: 0446676500 |
Amazon.com
Celebrated Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson is the director and editor of the Martin Luther King Papers Project; with thousands of King's essays, notes, letters, speeches, and sermons at his disposal, Carson has organized King's writings into a posthumous autobiography. In an early student essay, King prophetically penned: "We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance.... We cannot have a nation orderly and sound with one group so ground down and thwarted that it is almost forced into unsocial attitudes and crime." Such statements, made throughout King's career, are skillfully woven together into a coherent narrative of the quest for social justice. The autobiography delves, for example, into the philosophical training King received at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University, where he consolidated the teachings of Afro-American theologian Benjamin Mays with the philosophies of Locke, Rousseau, Gandhi, and Thoreau. Through King's voice, the reader intimately shares in his trials and triumphs, including the Montgomery Boycott, the 1963 "I Have a Dream Speech," the Selma March, and the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. In one of his last speeches, King reminded his audience that "in the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives." Carson's skillful editing has created an original argument in King's favor that draws directly from the source, illuminating the circumstances of King's life without deifying his person. --Eugene Holley Jr.
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
By weaving together an unprecedented amount of material, including Dr. King's books, articles, essays, personal letters, and unpublished manuscripts, Clayborne Carson (historian, documentarian, and director of the King Papers Project) has crafted an excellent production that represents the unique medium of audiobooks at its very best. With the effective and engaging narration of actor Levar Burton as a foundation, the tapes provide understanding and insight into this important religious and political leader's powerful convictions. Original music from the civil rights movement, plus rare recordings of Dr. King's moving speeches and sermons, help create an inspiring portrait of one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century. (Running time: 9 hours, 6 cassettes) --George Laney
Book Description
Celebrated Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson is the director and editor of the Martin Luther King Papers Project; with thousands of King's essays, notes, letters, speeches, and sermons at his disposal, Carson has organized King's writings into a posthumous autobiography. In an early student essay, King prophetically penned: "We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance.... We cannot have a nation orderly and sound with one group so ground down and thwarted that it is almost forced into unsocial attitudes and crime." Such statements, made throughout King's career, are skillfully woven together into a coherent narrative of the quest for social justice. The autobiography delves, for example, into the philosophical training King received at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University, where he consolidated the teachings of Afro-American theologian Benjamin Mays with the philosophies of Locke, Rousseau, Gandhi, and Thoreau. Through King's voice, the reader intimately shares in his trials and triumphs, including the Montgomery Boycott, the 1963 "I Have a Dream Speech," the Selma March, and the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. In one of his last speeches, King reminded his audience that "in the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives." Carson's skillful editing has created an original argument in King's favor that draws directly from the source, illuminating the circumstances of King's life without deifying his person. --Eugene Holley Jr.
Download Description
A professor of history and the noted author and editor of several books on the civil rights struggle, Dr. Clayborne Carson was selected by the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to edit and publish Dr. King's papers. Drawing upon an unprecedented archive of King's own words--including unpublished letters and diaries, as well as video footage and recordings--Dr. Carson creates an unforgettable self-portrait of Dr. King. In his own vivid, compassionate voice, here is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as student, minister, husband, father, and world leader . . . as well as a rich, moving chronicle of a people and a nation in the face of powerful--and still resonating--change.
Customer Reviews:
Nothing short of inspiring.......2007-06-27
I was excited to receive this book for my birthday, as I'd admired Martin Luther King Jr for a few years, but had to admit I didn't know much about him, or exactly what sacrifices he made. Although famous all over the world, he is probably not the first thing on the mind of most white Australian twenty-something females!
Basically, I knew of the 'I Have A Dream' speech and a few other wonderful quotes of his that I'd read on monuments dedicated to his journey that I photographed in Denver, Colorado. Other than this I felt a bit of a fraud for proclaiming to hero worship this man I knew so little about.
This book outlined the dedication that MLK had to the cause, along with the 'intellectual underpinnings of his wisdom' as one reviewer put it. This deeply intellectual angle made it a struggle at times for me to get through, but much like the uphill battle against racism, it was a journey well worth taking.
The last chapter was extremely sad and beautfully summed up the dedication to Christ and good that MLK worked tirelessly towards. This man was a true Christian in every sense of the word, tearing down at the cynicism I have built up towards Christianity over the years.
Martin Luther King Jr is a wonderful example to even intend to follow, one of God's most loyal children, and someone that I truly admire and respect.
Amen!
Accurate & Intructive but not the Full Picture.......2007-04-28
Reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s own words gives such insight into the man and the contribution he made to civil rights. Dr. King's commitment to such a noble cause and the sacrifices that he made truly make him a hero who should not be forgotten. The only shortcoming is so many things about a person's personal life are not easily seen in their speeches and letters and this is true of this compliation. It would be great to read a more extensive biography to "fill in the gaps" about his life.
A Must-Read for Every American.......2006-12-10
Clayborne Carson's representation of Dr. King's passionate, articulate vocation makes this book a bar-setter only rivaled by the books Martin himself published. The book gives a light recount of Dr. King's childhood, followed by a detailed description of his ministry of hope and efforts to stem the tide of racism and segregation in America. The only criticism I have for the book is that there is no audio tape in which the book is read by the King himself (it was, of course, written after Martin's death).
This book would make an excellent gift for recipients of all ages. I'm 16 and I found it to be extremely inspiring, simple, and yet so moving that I was often on the verge of joyful tears.
God Bless You All,
RSM
like Malcolm X's autobiography.......2006-05-25
I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X earlier this year, and it gave one radical image of the civil rights movement. Then I read the Autobiography of Martin Luther King, which gave another radical view of the civil rights movement. In my history class, I argued that MLK was over glorified by history, and none of the students read this book. It shows how he was a simple man who was tired of segregation and wanted to fight it, through nonviolent means.
But one must understand that this book, like X's autobiography, was edited by another person, it wasn't published directly by the subject. This book, just like X's, was edited from a collection of essays, interviews and statements the subjects made. So information could be filtered and manipulated to create a different image of the subject.
Excellent.......2006-04-03
I couldn't describe in words how amazing this book is. I read it and felt its beauty. The DVD, "USA THE MOVIE" also has excellent segments that are haunting in which Dr. King speaks over intense footage, DEFINITELY worth watching. I read this book twice and it left me thinking.
Customer Reviews:
Strength to Do Something requires the power and wisdom of love..........2006-07-30
In 1983 I entered teaching in West Virginia and received this book as a present from one of my teachers. In two years I moved to South Central to teach at 93rd Street School then into the Salinas valley and now in Oxnard.It has proved itself to be of great use to a teacher. I say this by way of explaining that as an elementary teacher, one working with a variety of settings, children, cultures, families, many kinds of educational issues I've come to believe that the book King wrote, this book, is a true helpmate to anyone trying to deal with inequity and injustice.Teaching is an act that requires a very deep understanding of who you are, your strengths, purpose, and this volume supports the evolution of your social conscious. For me the text allowed me to solidify who I am as a teacher and why I do what I do. One example might be the difficult job it is to teach in schools under assault for doing poorly, seemingly being de-constructed by politics without enough valid insight into ways to guide real improvement and coming up against ignorance in many forms-including the disparity in economic means permitted in America. It's not easy to teach children with vast dental decay, families out of work and watch a nation laud this as positive "welfare reform" when stranding these children in worse fixes. Sometimes I find it infinitely difficult to love my neighbor,well, my voucher loving neighbor, or even find commonality with those in million dollar homes feeling botox might make them both more appealing and more interesting.The child as a commodity construct which is now prevalent in educational dialog, among many other kinds of views, I find difficult to separate from the individuals telling me( in often rude and hurtful ways) that my efforts educationally are a failure and that schools don't work. In my world it's a constant Lou Dobbs immigration rant that somehow is hiding vaguely words that really seem to be saying something else. I tire of watching the reality of racism, class ism acted out in the lives of children-and this is a fatigue that easily becomes anger-King speaks to this.... I find myself lacking the strength to love positions taken by those that really don't know what they are talking about, and don't care other than for personal advantaging anyway.... There is something truly fascinating about having a book that describes both your situation and your feelings as well as frames this into affective forward action-King can give you individual empowerment quite readily.And he can help you address your mindset. And that in this world of mine is a beautiful thing. I frame my work with principles that are able to outweigh the personal likes and dislikes levels...so I bring to school dealings my thoughts that I am there to help Anthony be the best Anthony he can be...not to condemn Anthony to my judgment about him. Let us say then King's is an active lexicon and this volume is insightful for someone wishing to everyday face injustice and difficulty with positive reaction and action. For me as a person I find the book more helpful than any I ever had.
If anyone underestimates MLK's true intellectual ability, or simply wants to revisit the kind of person he was, a read of this book should serve to illustrate that America has had a prophet in my lifetime. Truly this should be required reading in high school and college programs for the young persons of our country to become acquainted with and use in working on social issues.
Life changing.......2006-03-11
Timeless. As relevant now as what it was when it was written. Addresses the issues of hate and indifference and argues that the solution is love. Love does sound all too simplistic but it is one of the hardest things to face but its rewards are beyond words.
*M. L. KING DAY* Prods Us TO OVERCOME A HISTORY OF 'JUST TALK' . . . .......2006-01-17
Let's not just sit in silence on *Martin Luther King Day* - - We must ask ourselves how WE can carry forward Dr. King's message & become agents for change. Reading his words in "STRENGTH TO LOVE" makes an excellent beginning.
Remember those words from the Bible that challenged us "to love justice"? King's sermons (collected mostly from the time of the bus boycott) prod us today to carry forth "the Power of One" and make this particular holiday a statement of our own acts of Love. To love takes courage as well as strength.
Since the Gulf state hurricanes, we have witnessed injustice toward blacks as blatant as any experienced in the 40's. To summon up the hope and optimism that kept Martin Luther King's message alive is an absolute necessity today. To exercise King's principles, to work for justice, to not allow ourselves to sit in silence - - that's where our beliefs must take us. " . . . the day we become silent about things that matter" IS THE DAY "OUR LIVES BEGIN TO END."
Love is where non-violent action begins. In his sermons King expanded on how the tactics of Gandhi can & do work a mighty force for change. For "Strength to Love" the cover art, a wood cut by Stephen Alcorn, makes another strong statement. Dr. King's words most forceful to me are about *love* and *redemption* - - (the latter is an under-used word these days) - - and the last chapter in which he shared his amazing *PILGRIMAGE* through philosophy and experience. Reviewer mcHAIKU echoes the hope of many: that we act responsibly, energetically and courageously to speak truth to Power. "I ain't gonna study war not more." (Martin Luther King Day, 1-16-06)
Love takes on a broader meaning.......2005-04-27
"Strength to Love" woke me up.
It made Dr. King so much more real. It contains some of the most powerful teachings on how to love in situations where it is difficult to. Not love -in the romantic sense - but rather, in a much deeper way - as in love of humankind. Of Christ-love. Just read his sermon on "Loving your enemies": he starts with the difficulty of reconciling this commandment, and finishes with a flury of passion exhorting us to make this commandment real when he starts with the words "To our most bitter opponents, we say...". It's not just the banter and broad strokes which he uses so magnificently to generate his passion. He also gathers support from folks such as Emerson, Napolean, Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche and the Bible of course. All of this to convey a sense of urgency to show how low we all have come, and at the same time to inspire us to a place where we can go.
While you may not agree with what he says, you must admire and respect what he says. Dr. King's messages aren't easy to digest- but he says the right thing - which is not always, the easy thing. Even though these teachings were written over 40 years ago now, his messages in "Strength" are no less relevant and more important than ever.
Uncommon strength.......2004-11-25
In the popular eye, Martin Luther King, Jr. is best known for his work in the Civil Rights struggle during the 1950s and 1960s; his public speeches and public acts are part of the general pattern of American history. However, his ability at public speaking came largely from his experience as a preacher in Black church - the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had a 'day job' as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and as part of this task, he regularly delivered sermons to his congregation. This is a collection of 15 sermons, illustrating major points of King's theology and sense of social justice.
This book has a foreword by King's daughter, Coretta Scott King, who speaks of this book as one that is most influential to others - the primary feature of King's theology and practice, nonviolence, is contained here. King's sense of justice, the love of the divine, the interconnectedness of all peoples in the human community, and King's ultimate sense of optimism come through the powerful words of these sermons.
King's words often take conventional phrases and ideas and bring out new meanings. King's ideas of the practical meaning of being a nonconformist, or of loving one's enemies, put new interpretations on these ideas. King talks of the difficulty of being a nonconformist, and the echoes of the Transcendentalists such as Emerson and Thoreau are present, as are theologians such as Niebuhr. King does not speak of the kind of simple nonconformity that typifies teen-age rebellion and angst (which is, in itself a very conformist kind of nonconformity), but rather a working against the prevailing norms of society toward a transformation in love and furtherance of the gospel message.
King states that of all Jesus' commands, the command to love one's enemies is the most difficult to follow in practice. King looks not only at the question of how, but also why should we love our enemies, concluding with the observation that 'love is the most durable power in the world.' Love, being a creative and transformative force, is the greatest hope for lasting and meaningful peace. Quoting Napoleon Bonaparte, who built a great empire, he observes that all empires and authorities that rest on force are destined to fail, but Jesus' empire built on love continues generation after generation.
King risked unpopularity among the dominant white culture of America; this is well known. However, he also risked unpopularity among his own community (and risked giving the powers that be further ammunition against him) by delivering sermons such as 'How should Christians view Communism?' and not giving a unilateral condemnation of the same. This was a perilous stand to take in Cold-War America. Admitting the problems with Communism, King was equally honest about the shortcomings of Capitalism, and wrote, 'We who cannot accept the creed of the Communists recognize their zeal and commitment to a cause which they believe will create a better world.' King takes both Communism and Capitalism to task for failing to appreciate the social aspect of humanity, concentrating more on the Enlightenment-generated individual.
This is no simple Baptist preaching - King's erudition shows through without being oppressive or condescending; he weaves in references from Greek and Roman classics, Shakespeare, English and Continental philosophers, the Declaration of Independence, and American writers with grace and ease, all the while maintaining a close attention to the primary biblical message. King doesn't engage in prooftexting, but does provide a new hermeneutic (for the time) that provides foundation for more recent liberation theologies of diverse strands.
Perhaps pride of place goes to the final sermon in this collection ('and the last shall be first'), which is King's 'Pilgrimage to Nonviolence'. King gives a brief spiritual and intellectual autobiography, talking of his quest for understanding from fundamentalism to liberalism to neo-orthodoxy and beyond; he gives credit to examples such as Gandhi and the people of bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama as proof that nonviolent action can have dramatic, lasting and beneficial power for the whole community. The sermon ends with hope for the future, a future we are called to continue to build.
This is a text to be read again and again, as the words remain fresh and powerful even as nearly half a century has passed since their first utterance. There is inspiration for our time as well as a glimpse of times past in King's sermons. It is worthy of a place in history, and deserves a place in the future.
Average customer rating:
- Here I Stand is an amazingly interesting read!
- A man named Martin, a Reformer named Luther
- "By faith alone..."
- Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
- Excellent Book
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Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
Roland H. Bainton
Manufacturer: Plume
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ASIN: 0452011469 |
Customer Reviews:
Here I Stand is an amazingly interesting read!.......2007-09-19
I purchased the book after watching the movie Luther with Joseph Fiennes (sp?). I usually do that in reverse order but not this time. The book very logically and clearly (and with great clarity and attention to detail) portrays the inner life and events going on at that time in Luther's life. It is a great review of history, the Catholic Church and the mind of Martin Luther.
The only downside is that you often need to read it with a dictionary present due to some of the words and context in which it is written that are not readily used in daily discussions. Great way to learn them though.
This is a wonderful read and one that I could not put down once I started. He is a very influential and fascinating historical figure.
A man named Martin, a Reformer named Luther.......2007-08-12
Martin Luther is one of the historical protagonists who has had the greatest amout of biographies written. This is a biography which displays not only the Reformer, but also the man Martin Luther. Luther's phrase, chosen as title, reveals the essence of the man: "Here I stay, I could not do differently. So help me God".
"By faith alone...".......2007-04-02
Having read Luther's "Bondage of the Will" I was interested in the Reformer's life and how God transformed him. In Roland H. Bainton's book you feel the man and his convictions. Bainton includes many lengthy quotes by Luther himself, so the reader begins to "feel" the man and his faith. The book also has many B & W wood-cut illustrations from that time, so you get to sense their history.
Bainton focuses on how Luther became a monk and from a monk to a world changing reformer. Luther's struggle with God's righteousness was so pivotal in his early days in the monastery, he was led to study of the Holy Scriptures by order of his senior. And it ultimately led to re-discovery of the Gospel -- that man is justified (declared righteous) by faith alone in what Christ has done for us. This revolutionized Luther's theology and his own life. Luther's emphasis, "by faith alone" is the heart of the gospel. He does not dismiss the importance of good works, but emphasized that good works cannot save and only faith saves. This was important distinction to him. And this book captures this fact about Luther well.
Moreover, the book pictures Luther as translator of the Bible into German language from original Hebrew and Greek. It is incredible feat by one man. He also wrote many hymns (including that famous "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God") to be sung at the church.
The book was fun to read as well. I couldn't stop reading. You will KNOW Luther in this book. Highly recommended.
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther.......2007-01-10
This is an exceptional book for objective historical and theological perspectives of the life of Martin Luther. I have read the book as part of seminary studies, though the book is written with an undertone for lay understanding. The major pluses of the book are the honest depiction of the character of Martin Luther and how his personal theology developed over his pastoral years with highlights of how his insights helped cause major reforms of theological throughout the world as well as bringing the book of the bible in a readable and understandable format to his beloved German people.
Excellent Book.......2006-11-10
The Pastor at my church referred me to this Book. And it was excellent. Very thorough on Luther's life.
Book Description
This is the story of how America awakened to its race problem, of how a nation that longed for unity after World War II came instead to see, hear, and learn about the shocking indignities and injustices of racial segregation in the South—and the brutality used to enforce it.
It is the story of how the nation’s press, after decades of ignoring the problem, came to recognize the importance of the civil rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the twentieth century.
Drawing on private correspondence, notes from secret meetings, unpublished articles, and interviews, veteran journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff go behind the headlines and datelines to show how a dedicated cadre of newsmen—first black reporters, then liberal southern editors, then reporters and photographers from the national press and the broadcast media—revealed to a nation its most shameful shortcomings and propelled its citizens to act.
We watch the black press move bravely into the front row of the confrontation, only to be attacked and kept away from the action. Following the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision striking down school segregation and the South’s mobilization against it, we see a growing number of white reporters venture South to cover the Emmett Till murder trial, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the integration of the University of Alabama.
We witness some southern editors joining the call for massive resistance and working with segregationist organizations to thwart compliance. But we also see a handful of other southern editors write forcefully and daringly for obedience to federal mandates, signaling to the nation that moderate forces were prepared to push the region into the mainstream.
The pace quickens in Little Rock, where reporters test the boundaries of journalistic integrity, then gain momentum as they cover shuttered schools in Virginia, sit-ins in North Carolina, mob-led riots in Mississippi, Freedom Ride buses being set afire, fire hoses and dogs in Birmingham, and long, tense marches through the rural South.
For many journalists, the conditions they found, the fear they felt, and the violence they saw were transforming. Their growing disgust matched the mounting countrywide outrage as The New York Times, Newsweek, NBC News, and other major news organizations, many of them headed by southerners, turned a regional story into a national drama.
Meticulously researched and vividly rendered, The Race Beat is an unprecedented account of one of the most volatile periods in our nation’s history, as told by those who covered it.
Customer Reviews:
Unique view of that time in our history.......2007-10-05
The Civil Rights Movement of the `50s and `60s was a significant and well-known period of American history. But have you ever thought about why it is so well known, or even why it had so much success?
The Race Beat is a story, not only of the well-known players of the Civil Rights Movement, but also the men who covered it in the media. These men poured their hearts and souls into covering the stories that would make the people of the United States stand up and take notice of the injustices being done in the name of "separate but equal," "justice," and "liberty." Many of these men had battled against Hitler over his racial elitism. Once they came home, they were quick to jump into the front lines of our own battle for racial equality before we descended into the depravity that Hitler is known for.
This is a fascinating insider's look at how the civil rights battle was brought to the forefront of the United States' attention. Blending well-known events with the stories of the men who were there writing about it, you get a whole new perspective of what these men were feeling and fighting for. Not just as outside observers, but compatriots.
This book is well written and well researched, but it is slow to start. I picked it up expecting the jump into the civil rights movement, but found myself in the `40s as they laid the groundwork for what the journalists were to become. It is also heavily journalist-centric. That is to say, there are references the non-journalists among us won't understand. But all in all, it is a great read.
Armchair Interviews says: If you are looking for a new perspective on the civil rights movement, this book is for you.
The Race Beat.......2007-06-27
A very good review of how the Civil Rights movement was covered and influenced by news media.
Absorbing and instructive.......2007-04-27
I have read a lot on the civil rights struggle, including Taylor Branch's trilogy, and Simple Justice, by Richard Kluger, and have appreciated all the reading I have done on that momentous struggle. But this account of how newspapers and television chronicled the exciting events told me a lot I did not know or had not remembered. The book is carefully footnoted and has a 26 page bibliography, in addition to the footnotes (thus avoiding the unfortunate lapse of some books which are well-footnoted but omit a bibliography). The book not only tells of newsmen and media sometimes going to great, even heroic lengths, to tell the story of the events in the clash between aspring blacks and the status quo, but also tells of the media which sought to uphold segregation. As with other books on the struggle, when one is appalled by the violence and murders which marked the history, it is some comfort to realize that in the end right triumphs. This book is an astoundingly interesting survey of an important aspect of the civil rights efforts of the 1950s and 1960s.
Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History.......2007-04-17
Outstanding effort by legendary editor Gene Roberts, widely admired for turning around the Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1980s and leading it to multiple prizes in journalism, revisits, with co-author Hank Klibanoff, managing editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, both their own work in civil rights reporting and the work of colleagues to pen this precise and most interesting study of what journalists were and weren't doing when segregation was legal in the U.S.
Highly readable and fascinating history.
Book Description
An inspiring collection featuring the milestone speeches of one of the greatest orators of the 20th century.Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., led the Civil Rights movement, inspiring generations of Americans and transforming the future of the United States. This collection includes the text of Dr. Kings best-known oration, I Have A Dream, his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, and Beyond Vietnam, a compelling argument for ending the ongoing conflict.
Download Description
His speeches stirred a generation to change--and outlined a practical way to economic freedom and true democracy. His words would help bring about the end of a brutally unequal system and would show a timeless method for achieving fairness and justice for all. A CALL TO CONSCIENCE is a milestone collection of Dr. King's most influential and best-known speeches. Compiled by Stanford historian Dr. Clayborne Carson, director of the King Papers Project, and by contributing editor Kris Shepard, this volume takes you behind the scenes on an astonishing historical journey--from the small, crowded church in Montgomery, Alabama, where "The Birth of a New Nation" ignited the modern civil rights movement, to the center of the nation's capital, where "I Have a Dream" echoed through a nation's conscience, to the Mason Temple in Memphis, where over ten thousand people heard Dr. King give his last, transcendent speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," the night before his assassination. In twelve important introductions, some of the world's most renowned leaders and theologians--Andrew Young, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Mrs. Rosa Parks, among others--share with you their reflections on these speeches and give priceless firsthand testimony on the events that inspired their delivery. Expressing a deeply felt faith in democracy, the power of loving change, and a self-deprecating humor, A CALL TO CONSCIENCE is Dr. King speaking today. It is a unique, unforgettable record of the words that rallied millions, forever changed the face of America, and even today shape our deepest personal hopes and dreams for the future.
Customer Reviews:
Gotta own.........2007-05-13
I listen to these over and over, can't stop listening to Dr. King. Very moving and the things he said and did were all so real. Our generation of now needs to hear his speeches. You really want this collection!!! I'm buying a couple more as gifts.
A Call to Conscience........2007-03-26
As one who may be called a baby-boomer, I was born at a privileged time; I more or less 'came of age' in the late 1960's, in a restless and changing world that was asking old questions anew, and breaking down old paradigms. Looking back from our present perspective, nothing of those times has cast a longer shadow than the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The King Estate has long been very protective of copyrights for Dr. King's speeches and this small volume is very welcome. Selecting Dorothy I. Height to introduce the 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech makes good sense, but does selecting Senator Edward Kennedy to present an introduction bring ethical legitimization to 'A Call to Conscience'? If the answer is no, there might have been a less distracting choice.
"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence." - MLK, 1963
Nice to have.......2007-03-19
I think it is very much worth the purchase. From a historical prespective its very informative. The way MLK speaks is amazing and moving. The way he presents himself makes me want to better myself. I have to admit there is a problem with this product. The sound is not very clear on some parts of the cds. With that said, would I buy this product knowing what I know now, Indubitable Yes!
Important Work.......2007-02-18
Excellent introductions and speeches for those of us who weren't there to live it. Challenges one to seek to do important things, not ordinary things.
Martin Luther King Jr. is still teaching.......2007-01-10
This historical collection of the public speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. is a treasure for Americans and people all over the world. He is still teaching his message of truth, peace, and justice. The dramatic emotional connection you get when hearing his voice deliver these messages is an important way to learn about recent history.
I was born in 1947. I once heard Dr. King speak at UCLA when I was a student there in the 1960's. He, like his mentor Mohandas Gandhi, were remarkably wonderful men. Such peaceful men were murdered by assassins bullets but could not silence them. People can still learn from this fallen leader. Like Gandhi he was never elected to public office yet his words have great impact today while the actions of politicians have failed to achieve their intended goals. Hearing taped recordings of his live speeches is a treat.
Book Description
The definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade.
Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic "plantation mentality" embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation workers were chewed up like garbage in the back of a faulty truck, igniting a public employee strike that brought to a boil long-simmering issues of racial injustice.
With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: stalwart black workers; fiery black ministers; volatile, young, black-power advocates; idealistic organizers and tough-talking unionists; the first black members of the Memphis city council; the white upper crust who sought to prevent change or conflagration; and, finally, the magisterial Martin Luther King Jr., undertaking a Poor People's Campaign at the crossroads of his life, vilified as a subversive, hounded by the FBI, and seeing in the working poor of Memphis his hopes for a better America. 16 pages of illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Recalling memories.......2007-07-13
As one who lived through the history recalled in this book,I found it excellent.It is great to read a book in which you personally knew all the people written about and recall all the events.Michael Honey has done an excelllent job.I highly recommend this book to all students of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King jr. Especially I recommend it to all residents of Memphis and Tennessee.May we never allow this history to repeat itself
A Measure of the Men.......2007-01-06
This might be the finest book written on Martin Luther King: it certainly is the best one that I have read about him. Honey is a splendid writer, with a style that I find more accessible than Taylor Branch's. No doubt that Branch has written the seminal history of King and his times, but his writing can become tedious due to too much detail and meandering sentences.
Honey is an award-winning historian who has written two previous excellent books that demonstrate his skill as an oral historian. The outstanding feature of this book is the numerous interviews he conducted with important figures, which keep the book always absorbing.
King receives much attention, but Honey shows that the Memphis strike was led by local workers and union officials who were fighting to escape the living hell of dangerous working conditions (the strike grew out of the deaths of two sanitation workers who were mangled in a malfunctioning garbage truck when they sought shelter from a rainstorm).
In addition to the stories about the local workers and organizers, King is portrayed as an important influence who was struggling with internal fighting among black civil rights groups, includng the NAACP, the Urban League, SCLC, and SNCC, the FBI, Lyndon Johnson, who was angered by King's anti-war proclamations, and most whites who thought King was moving too fast. Any reader who questions King's leadership and selflessness, needs to read this book to have those views dispelled.
Ultimately, the Memphis strike paved the way for labor improvements throughout the South.
This superb book should be considered for all major book prizes. For King scholars, it is essential and for all other informed readers, it is an excellent narrative of King and his times.
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