Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is as relevant today as he was when he led civil rights campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s. He was an agent and a prophet of political change in this country, and the election of President Barack Obama is his direct legacy. Now from one of Britain's most experienced political observers comes a new, accessible biography of the man and his works. The story of King is dramatic, and Godfrey Hodgson presents it with verve, clarity, and acute insight based in part on his own reporting on-scene at the time. He interviewed King half a dozen times or more; heard his speech at the March on Washington; was in Birmingham, Selma and Chicago; and met many of the characters in King's life story. Martin Luther King combines the best of his own reporting, plus the work of other biographers and researchers, to trace the iconic civil rights leader's career from his birth in Atlanta in 1929, through the campaigns that made possible the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to his assassination in Memphis in 1968. Hodgson sheds light on every aspect of an extraordinary life: the Black Baptist culture in which King grew up, his theology and political philosophy, his physical and moral courage, his insistence on the injustice of inequality, his campaigning energy, his repeated sexual infidelities.Hodgson describes the political minefield in which King operated; follows how he gradually persuaded President Kennedy that he could not stand by and allow the civil rights movement to be frustrated; and describes how, on the verge of success, his career was threatened by President Johnson's anger at King's principled decision to come out against the Vietnam War. He also puts King's career into the context of American history in the crisis of the 1960s. In his life, King was frustrated; but in death, he has been triumphant.Martin Luther King allows the charisma and power of King's personality to shine through, showing in gripping narrative style exactly how one man helped America to progress toward its truest ideals. Hodgson's extensive research and detail help paint an accurate, complex portrait of one of America's most important leaders.

"Godfrey Hodgson has crafted a insightful and perceptive biography of Martin Luther King, informed by his own personal knowledge of the man and his times. Written with Hodgson's characteristic energy, the book provides a compelling overview of King's pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement." --Lewis L. Gould, Professor of History, University of Texas Austin and author of 1968: The Election That Changed American--Lewis Gould (2/23/2010 12:00:00 AM), "Hodgson, who interviewed King and his contemporaries in the 1950's and 1960's, writes with unsentimental grace about a complex, sensuous man, a daring radical who made the United States a better place, but also one fraught with divisions-stemming from the fracturing of the Democratic Party in the South and retrograde reactions of white Southerners, who provided the Republican Party with a hegemony that has made progress on King's radical agenda possible." --Carl Rollyson, Magill Book Reviews--Carl Rollyson "Magill Book Reviews" (9/27/2010 12:00:00 AM), "This excellent, short biography is ideal for high school and college students, and for general readers who want a concise overview of King's life and legacy." ---Library Journal-- "Library Journal"

Godfrey Hodgson has worked as a newspaper and magazine journalist; as a television reporter, documentary maker and anchor; as a university teacher and lecturer; and as the author of a dozen books about U.S. politics and recent history, including An American Melodrama (co-authored with Lewis Chester and Bruce Page), an account of the U.S. presidential election of 1968; America in Our Time, a history of the U.S. in the 1960s; More Equal Than Others, politics and society in 20th century America; The World Turned Right Side Up, a history of American conservatism in the 20th century; and most recently, a biography of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Gentleman from New York. He is a visiting journalism professor at City University in London and has just retired as director of the Reuters Foundation Programme at Oxford University.