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4.65 AVERAGE
4.65 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
I thought this was great. As a caveat I had never read a full length work on Dr King before, so I can’t compare it from the numerous others. But I am an American (and I hope a fairly well informed one) who of course grew up with Dr King as one of those Big Figures in American history and was aware of some of the critiques of his work and personal life etc. This book did so much for me. Prominently a clearer understanding of the timeline of the whole civil rights movement. So many of these events we learn about as separate entities, perhaps linking one or two in a chain ; but with King’s life as a thread we’re really able to see a fuller picture and see the complexities of intentions and reactions in each. And I’ve come away with a better understanding of King’s own life — how young he was when he began (25 at Montegomery) and how intensely he worked. So much of the post-March on Washington events of his life were largely unknown to me — Chicago completely so. But I think that drives into Eig’s point in the conclusion: by hallowing King we have hollowed him.
Eig gave a fuller picture of King’s spiritual and intellectual development than I had learned of in other settings. It’s made me now want to turn to other authors who specialize in that aspect and learn more. It’s clear Eig did extensive research and pulled from a lot of sources (including FBI files and recordings as they become available). I listened to this as an audiobook but I’d love to read a physical copy some day and dig into the footnotes — the moments where Eig wrote from another observer’s view of an event or one of King’s oration were really deftly handled and carried the narrative in a wonderful way — I want to know where he drew some of these from. I am hoping perhaps for second edition as the rest of the FBI files are released.
I’ll be thinking about this for a long time and will have a lot more to say than these scattered thoughts. But in general- I highly recommend.
I’d also like to say the audiobook was done extraordinarily well. It would be a shame not to have it so, with King’s voice being so famous. But really very good production in the audiobook side.
Eig gave a fuller picture of King’s spiritual and intellectual development than I had learned of in other settings. It’s made me now want to turn to other authors who specialize in that aspect and learn more. It’s clear Eig did extensive research and pulled from a lot of sources (including FBI files and recordings as they become available). I listened to this as an audiobook but I’d love to read a physical copy some day and dig into the footnotes — the moments where Eig wrote from another observer’s view of an event or one of King’s oration were really deftly handled and carried the narrative in a wonderful way — I want to know where he drew some of these from. I am hoping perhaps for second edition as the rest of the FBI files are released.
I’ll be thinking about this for a long time and will have a lot more to say than these scattered thoughts. But in general- I highly recommend.
I’d also like to say the audiobook was done extraordinarily well. It would be a shame not to have it so, with King’s voice being so famous. But really very good production in the audiobook side.
Wow. A phenomenal book. The way that our education system and media has smoothed MLK’s image out really is insidious. I’m glad that this book can put his life and work into sharper focus.
In an interview the author said he wanted to humanize King and make his readers cry at the end. He succeeded. This book is so good.
I've read a great Medgar biography and now this great MLK biography.
I have to find a great Malcolm X biography before the year ends.
I have to find a great Malcolm X biography before the year ends.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
This really was incredible! This is not only a biography of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., but also of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. We get such a clear portrayal of the stages of King’s Civil Rights work, from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to his Letters from a Birmingham Jail to the March on Washington and his “I Have a Dream” speech, but we also see the minor details of his work in the South. In his later years we see King’s radical work with his housing justice initiatives in the North, anti-poverty initiatives, and his speaking out against the Vietnam War. We learn about all of the friends, figures, and collaborators that stood by his side along the way, even having President Kennedy and President Johnson on “speed dial.” King was not a perfect man; in fact he was very flawed, and Jonathan Eig portrays really well the humanity of King. He was incredibly stressed, burnt out, and depressed. He betrayed his wife. Also the FBI was on his tail, which I had no idea about. Eig rights with a strong narrative drive, which makes this such an engaging biography and makes you feel like you’re at King’s dining room table. And my man Dion Graham, delivers once again on the audiobook narration! It is long, but every detail is worth it and not wasted. Eig gives King the “presidential treatment.” I didn’t realize how much about King I didn’t know until I read this book. This is worth your time.
This biography is absolutely fantastic and I am not a biography reader! King: A Life had so many insights, quotes, facts, and interviews that I felt I was living at that time.
I was shocked by the mental strain, fear, politics, and the FBI's unwarranted crossing of privacy into King's life. This book is so much more than a lesson on the civil rights movement, or the preacher who lead peaceful protests.
This is not a quick read or an easy text to fly through. But it is so important and still resonates in today's climate!
4.5 stars
I was shocked by the mental strain, fear, politics, and the FBI's unwarranted crossing of privacy into King's life. This book is so much more than a lesson on the civil rights movement, or the preacher who lead peaceful protests.
This is not a quick read or an easy text to fly through. But it is so important and still resonates in today's climate!
4.5 stars
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence
Moderate: War, Injury/Injury detail
Wild how much our schools have changed who MLK really was. This book was really well researched and written in a way to convey that King was not some egotistical liar who took charge of the civil rights movement, he was humble and empathetic soul that had the throne of leadership given to him. Yes he was flawed, but he was also deeply self-aware and truly cared about what he was marching for. One of the better biographies I’ve read that showed that King was not some distant historical figure, he was a passionately nonviolent man whose condemnation of racism, poverty, and police brutality would anger both conservatives and progressives alike while helping to empower Black people.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced