Synopses & Reviews
Combining the latest insights from King biographies and movement histories, this book provides an up-to-date analysis of the relationship between the 'man and the movement.'
- Martin Luther king is the most important black American of the twentieth century and defined racial equality in the United States.
- No one book offers such a succinct yet critically engaged analysis of King and his relationship to the rest of the civil rights movement.
- It offers a synthesis and assessment of a much larger body of scholarly and popular literature on King and the civil rights movement.
- Most studies offer straightforward biographies of King or histories of the civil rights movement: this book is distinctive in placing King's leadership within the wider context of the movement
Kirk' s book offers an up-to-date assessment of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, incorporating insights from the most recent scholarship. In doing so, he delivers a fresh perspective on the relationship between ' the man and the movement, ' arguing that it is the interaction between national and local movement concerns that is essential to understanding King' s leadership and black activism in the 1950s and 1960s. Kirk examines King's strengths and his limitations, and weighs the role that King played in the movement alongside the contributions of other civil rights organisations and leaders, and local civil rights activists.
Dr. John A. Kirk is senior lecturer in American history at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is author of Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002), which won the J. G. Ragsdale book award. He has also published numerous articles and essays on the civil rights movement in the United States.
Review
"the finest brief biography of King currently on the market"
Patterns of Prejudice
"
a very fine introduction to the major themes of the civil rights movement"
Institute of Historical Research
"John A. Kirk's study achieves its aim of contextualizing King's contribution to the civil rights movement and evaluating his career."
Journal of American Studies, Volume 39 - 2005
The book would work as a supplemental text in survey courses or other classes that emphasize political history, leadership, government or the civil rights movement. Gives readers a glimpse of the political leadership of Martin Luther King Jr.
S. Jonathan Bass, Samford University
Synopsis
¿A thoughtful and measured analysis that will raise the bar for future works on the man and his work.¿
Pride Magazine Kirk¿s book offers an up-to-date assessment of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, incorporating insights from the most recent scholarship. In doing so, he delivers a fresh perspective on the relationship between ¿the man and the movement,¿ arguing that it is the interaction between national and local movement concerns that is essential to understanding King¿s leadership and black activism in the 1950s and 1960s. Kirk examines King's strengths and his limitations, and weighs the role that King played in the movement alongside the contributions of other civil rights organisations and leaders, and local civil rights activists.
Synopsis
Combining the latest insights from KIng biographies and movement histories, this book provides an up-to-date critical analysis of the relationship between King and the wider civil rights movement. Delivering a fresh perspective on the relationship between 'the man and the movement', Kirk argues that it is the interactionbetween national and local movement concerns that is essential to understanding King's leadership and black activism in the 1950s and 1960s. Kirk examines King's strengths and his limitations, and weighs the role that king played in then movement alongside the contributions of other civil rights organizations and leaders, and local civil rights activists.
Suitable for undergraduate courses in 20th century US history.
Synopsis
Combining the latest insights from King biographies and movement histories, this book provides an up-to-date analysis of the relationship between the ¿man and the movement.¿
- Martin Luther king is the most important black American of the twentieth century and defined racial equality in the United States.
- No one book offers such a succinct yet critically engaged analysis of King and his relationship to the rest of the civil rights movement.
- It offers a synthesis and assessment of a much larger body of scholarly and popular literature on King and the civil rights movement.
- Most studies offer straightforward biographies of King or histories of the civil rights movement: this book is distinctive in placing King¿s leadership within the wider context of the movement
Synopsis
Martin Luther King Jr exercised a tremendous degree of influence in a movement that between 1955 and 1965 successfully dismantled a system of legalised racial segregation and disfranchisement entrenched for over sixty years in the United States. How did King, who came from a subordinated group within American society, help effect this change? What background, characteristics, abilities and ideas enabled him to do this? Why was King so important in shaping the civil rights movement?
John A. Kirk looks at the sources of King¿s power in the black community and its relationship to wider American society, focusing particularly on the role of the black church, the philosophy of nonviolence and issues of leadership, whilst paying due attention to the voices of King¿s critics and detractors and to the limitations of his power. He locates King firmly within the context of other leaders and organisations, voices and opinions, and tactics and ideologies, which made up the movement as a whole.
Fifty years after the Montgomery bus boycott, which launched King¿s movement leadership, this book moves beyond the all-too-often oversimplified story of King¿s life and times to provide an innovative analytical framework for understanding the role played by one of the United States¿ most important historical figures.
John A. Kirk is senior lecturer in US History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has written extensively on the history of the civil rights movement, including Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940 ¿ 1970 (2002) which won the 2003 J. G. Ragsdale Book Award.
About the Author
Dr. John A. Kirk is senior lecturer in American history at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is author of Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002), which won the J. G. Ragsdale book award. He has also published numerous articles and essays on the civil rights movement in the United States.
Table of Contents
Introduction: King in Context
1. Becoming a Leader, 1929-1956
2. Catching Up, 1956-1961
3. Forming a Strategy, 1961-3
4. Glory Bound, 1963-4
5. A Movement in Transition, 1965-6
6. New Directions, 1966-1968