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Chargement... Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year (édition 2014)par Tavis Smiley, David Ritz (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreDeath of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year par Tavis Smiley
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. An excellent account of Martin Luther King Jr.'s last year. The Baptist preacher from Georgia takes on an insane schedule to fight for his beliefs and he feels increasingly misunderstood and rejected by his own people. Before I read this book, I was not aware how strongly Martin Luther King opposed the Vietnam war - he saw the bigger connection between poverty, war and race. Many others criticized him saying he was taking on too much - and how could he oppose President Lyndon Johnson, after he had made concessions toward civil rights. MLK even considers a fast like Gandhi to show that he is firm in his conviction - he disregards politics, popularity, but sometimes also his own safety. "I am not a consensus leader", he says, "a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus." He wanted to substitute courage for caution. An impressive testimony to one of America's greatest democratic public intellectuals.
While nothing in “Death of a King” will be new to those who have read their Taylor Branch or David Garrow, it makes a point that bears repeating: King’s radicalism toward the end of his life has been papered over, while King himself has been reduced to “an idealistic dreamer to be remembered for a handful of fanciful speeches,” as Smiley notes in his introduction. A reverential look at Martin Luther King Jr.’s last agonizing year that does not disguise the flaws of a saint. The humanity and moral conviction of this great civil rights leader emerge in talk show host Smiley (Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure, 2011, etc.) and co-writer Ritz’s poignant account of King’s final struggle. In the introduction, Smiley asserts that King’s “martyrdom has undermined his message” and that during the last year of his life, the Nobel Prize winner returned to his original message of nonviolence with all the conviction of his preacher’s soul.
Presents a revealing and dramatic chronicle of the 12 months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)323.092Social sciences Political Science Civil and political rights Civil Rights Biography And History BiographyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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There were a couple of small irritations with the book for me. Smiley insisted on continually referring to MLK as "Doc," which was his nickname among his friends and advisors. I didn't feel that was necessarily appropriate here and it irked me from time to time, though not seriously. Also, Smiley relatively frequently writes as if he knows King's thoughts. He explains this in his introduction, saying he only does this when his interviews with King's close advisors reveal what these people felt sure King was thinking, or sometimes what he said to them. I was willing to give Smiley the benefit of the doubt on this effect, basically trusting that he had the ideas and emotions correct. Somebody who knew King might have a different idea.
All in all, I thought this book was very much worth reading, though frequently depressing. I had tended to think of King's live as mostly single-toned, if that makes sense. King was just King, the great man who sometimes had his missteps but was consistent in the long run. Understanding the that the enormous pressures of the times--the discord, hatred and doubt--had on King during his last year only adds to my esteem for his life and what he was able to accomplish. ( )