King : a life / Jonathan Eig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eig, Jonathan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Race relations--History--20th century.

United States.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.

King, Martin Luther.

African American civil rights workers--Biography.

African American civil rights workers.

Civil rights workers--United States--Biography.

Civil rights workers.

African Americans--Biography.

African Americans.

African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century.

Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.

Civil rights movements.

African American Baptists--Clergy--Biography.

African American Baptists.

African Americans--Civil rights.

Race relations.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 669 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm.

monochrome

illustration

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [2023]

Summary:

"The first full biography in decades, "King" mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life for our times"-- Provided by publisher.

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father--as well as the nation's most mourned martyr.

"Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father--as well as the nation's most mourned martyr"--Dust jacket flap.

Contents:

Prologue

(Part I) The Kings of Stockbridge

Martin Luther

Sweet Auburn

"Black America still wears chains"

The open curtain

"A sense of responsibility"

The seminarian

"Madly, madly in love"

The match

The dynamic force

Plagiarism and poetry

Gideon's army

"A precipitating factor"

"My soul is free"

"We ain't rabbit no more"

A warning

(Part II) Alabama's Moses

"I'm glad you didn't sneeze"

The pilgrimage

Leaving Montgomery

"Kennedy to the rescue!"

The new Emancipation Proclamation

Temptation and surveillance

"The stuff is just in 'em"

Birmingham jail

(Part III): The dream, part one

The dream, part two

"The most dangerous negro"

Man of the year

A law observance problem

The prize

The director

A new sense of "some-bodiness"

Crowbar

Selma

"The true meaning of my work"

"A shining moment"

Burning

Beware the day

Chicago

Black Power

"I hope King gets it"

"Not an easy time for me"

A revolution of values

Please come to Memphis

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 559-632) and index.

ISBN:

9780374279295

0374279292

OCLC:

1345220065