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4.65 AVERAGE
4.65 AVERAGE
Highly recommend reading (or listening) to this one. a friend, having listened to it, advised me to start with the interview with the author. It framed the book, the sources that added to this new biography, and some additional context about King’s faith, comparisons to Malcolm X, and the role of the FBI that frame the whole book in a different way.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
medium-paced
This was excellent. A few things that really stood out to me:
- That Dr. King likely considered the last few years of his life to be much less successful than the period culminating in the March on Washington
- How unpopular, even among SCLC leadership, his turn to Vietnam was
In any case, this was a great read with very good prose. I highly recommend.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Inspiring. I don't think there is a better time to read about the life and words of Dr. King than right now. This book was a clear reminder that there are so many pieces of our history that are intentionally simplified or we have simply "run out of time" to cover in a grade school classroom.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
A propulsive biography that restores the canonized civil rights leader, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, to flesh and blood. I am impressed by how engrossing this book is—a surprise for a doorstop biography. The author takes great effort to emphasize Dr. King’s deeply held religious faith and how it fueled the conviction behind his activism. It also restores Dr. King’s evolving radical philosophy from the sanitized public narrative. The audiobook narrator is especially captivating.
The midway point of this book devotes two chapters to the March on Washington: one on Dr. King’s preparations for his I Have a Dream Speech; another from the perspective of attendees at the Lincoln Memorial. These sections of narration are especially captivating—the very familiar speech is restored to its original electrifying impact.
The chapter on Dr. King’s assassination and funeral and the subsequent rioting is jarringly brief and haunting in its stark brevity. There are other books for that; this book resists the impulse to make the man into a martyr. This biography is an astounding achievement.
The midway point of this book devotes two chapters to the March on Washington: one on Dr. King’s preparations for his I Have a Dream Speech; another from the perspective of attendees at the Lincoln Memorial. These sections of narration are especially captivating—the very familiar speech is restored to its original electrifying impact.
The chapter on Dr. King’s assassination and funeral and the subsequent rioting is jarringly brief and haunting in its stark brevity. There are other books for that; this book resists the impulse to make the man into a martyr. This biography is an astounding achievement.
challenging
informative
medium-paced