Synopses & Reviews
A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.
Review
Paul Rosenberg The Denver Post Masterfully, Dyson...seamlessly combines a passionate exploration of King's battles, values and ideas with a highly nuanced picture of the contexts he struggled in and transformed, then draws parallels and contrasts to our world today. Like King himself, the result speaks to everyone, from ivory tower to hip-hop streets, challenging all of us to move beyond our present limitations.
Review
Paul Rosenberg
The Denver Post
Masterfully, Dyson...seamlessly combines a passionate exploration of King's battles, values and ideas with a highly nuanced picture of the contexts he struggled in and transformed, then draws parallels and contrasts to our world today. Like King himself, the result speaks to everyone, from ivory tower to hip-hop streets, challenging all of us to move beyond our present limitations.
Review
Jake Lamar The New York Observer Not simply an important book -- it is a necessary one. In prose that is always sharp and engaging, Dyson uses King's life and legacy to take on everything from contemporary conservatism to hip-hop culture...An indispensable contribution to American social criticism.
Review
Michael Fletcher The Washington Post Such is the genius of Dyson. He...flows freely from the profound to the profane, from popular culture to classical literature...Dyson's latest book should only enhance his reputation...The book resurrects a King who bears little resemblance to the sainted -- some say homogenized -- integrationist fixed in the national consciousness.
Review
John Conyers, Jr. Congressman I May Not Get There With You is a stirring and brilliant treatment of one of our nation's greatest Americans. Like King, Dyson brings the heart of a preacher, the flair of a great stylist, and the original insight of a serious thinker engaged with a demanding but rewarding subject. After reading this book, we will never be able to look at King in the same way. Dyson rescues King from the shadow of myth and sheds new light on America's most triumphant leader in this century.
Review
Michael Moore author of Downsize This and host of Bravo Channel's "The Awful Truth" This is a brilliant book. After putting it down, I found myself at first profoundly sad that we no longer have Martin Luther King with us. But the good news, and the inspiring point of this book, is to remember that Dr. King was a human being, not a deity or some cardboard cutout on a pedestal where he can safely be admired from afar. By showing us the whole King, Michael Eric Dyson's book is both an important work that sets the record straight and a clarion call for all of us to stop saying, "If only Martin Luther King had lived!" To stop looking for the next King and get busy doing the work that needs to be done.
Review
James Ellroy author of L.A. Confidential, American Tabloid, and My Dark Places I May Not Get There With You is an exultant tribute to, and dissection of, the greatest 20th-century American. Martin Luther King lives -- in Michael Eric Dyson's brilliantly executed free-form sermon/biography/race riff. The book is a gift of language; provocative and challenging insights pop from every page. The transcendent and hugely troubled spirit of Martin Luther King grabs you, shakes you, and haunts you.
Review
George Stephanopoulos Michael Eric Dyson offers a radical reinterpretation of Martin Luther King, Jr.: radical in its politics, radical in its style, and radical in implication. An important and fun read.
Review
Nell Irvin Painter author of Sojourner Truth and Edwards Professor of American History, Princeton University Michael Eric Dyson wrests the safe Negro, Martin Luther King, Jr., from conservatives and restores his humanity. This conversation -- provocative, wide-ranging, and occasionally playful -- explores dimensions of King obscured by the icon. Black nationalist King? Maybe. Hip-hop King? Possibly. Flawed but heroic King? Definitely.
Review
Iyanla Vanzant author of In the Meantime and The Spirit of a Man I May Not Get There With You is a brilliant discussion of where we have been, where we are, and where we can hope to go. Only Michael Eric Dyson, a brilliant orator and minister himself, could restore to us the Martin Luther King, Jr. we lost, with the honesty of heart and outpouring of spirit we need to keep Dr. King alive in the 21st century. What a blessing!
Review
Samuel G. Freedman author of Upon This Rock: Miracles of a Black Church In the thirty-one years since Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, his legacy has been pillaged by ideological grave robbers. In I May Not Get There With You, Michael Eric Dyson performs a vital act of restoration, showing that in Dr. King's hands, Christian love and nonviolent civil disobedience were not the passive choices of a pallid man but part of a radical vision of social activism. When you read this book, you will learn why Martin Luther King was a man who not only had followers among the lowly, but enemies among the powerful.
Review
Benilde Little author of The Itch: A Novel and Good Hair Michael Eric Dyson is a man of extraordinary insight and heart. As an intellectual and a man of the church, he is uniquely suited to provide a fresh look at Martin Luther King, Jr. Dyson understands the complexity of being a dreamer and a pragmatist, a poet and a philosopher. His perspective will help us to understand the real importance of King's legacy.
Review
Robert Boynton The New York Times Dyson gives us a thoroughly contemporary King, an enigmatic hero whose flaws and failings make him more, not less, relevant to our times.
Synopsis
A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.
Synopsis
Michael Eric Dyson--a cutting edge African American intellectual a la Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West--reignites the legacy of Martin Luther King in this relevant, revolutionary, and human look at the American icon's true ideology. A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr., was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. In this groundbreaking examination of the man and his legacy, provocative author, lecturer, and professor Michael Eric Dyson restores King's true vitality and complexity and challenges us to embrace the very contradictions that make King relevant in today's world.
About the Author
Michael Eric Dyson is an ordained Baptist minister and Ida B. Wells Barnett University Professor at DePaul University. He is the author of Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X, Between God and Gangsta Rap, and Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line. He lives with his family in Chicago.
Table of Contents
ContentsPreface "We as a People Will Get to the Promised Land": Martin and Us
Introduction "You Don't Need to Go Out Saying Martin Luther King, Jr. Is a Saint": The American Hero
Part I. IDEOLOGYChapter 1 "I Saw That Dream Turn Into a Nightmare": From Color-Blindness to Black Compensation
Chapter 2 "Most Americans Are Unconscious Racists": Beyond Liberalism
Chapter 3 "As I Ponder the Madness of Vietnam": The Outlines of a Militant Pacifism
Chapter 4 "America Must Move Toward a Democratic Socialism": A Progressive Social Blueprint
Chapter 5 "We Did Engage in a Black Power Move": An Integrationist Embraces Enlightened Black Nationalism
Part II. IDENTITYChapter 6 "I Had to Know God for Myself": The Shape of a Radical Faith
Chapter 7 "Somewhere I Read of the Freedom of Speech": Constructing a Unique Voice
Chapter 8 "There Is a Civil War Going on Within All of Us": Sexual Personae in the Revolution
Chapter 9 "I Have Walked Among the Desperate, Rejected, and Angry": Two Generations of the Young, Gifted, and Black
Chapter 10 "The Primary Obligation of the Woman Is That of Motherhood": The Pitfalls of Patriarchy
Part III. IMAGEChapter 11 "Be True to What You Said on Paper": A Critical Patriotism
Chapter 12 "I Won't Have Any Money to Leave Behind": The Ownership of a Great Man
Chapter 13 "If I Have to Go Through This to Give the People a Symbol": The Burden of Representation
Epilogue "Lil' Nigger, Just Where You Been?": Metaphors and Movements
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index