Author Godfrey Hodgson, a British journalist who has studied and written about America for many years, garnered well-deserved praise for his history, America in Our Time: From World War II to Nixon (2005). Now his biography of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. takes readers through a dramatic period of U.S. history in a truly readable narrative that concludes with a useful index and helpful notes.
The book is especially admirable in that it packs so much - King's entire life - into a concise 231 pages. His story is also seen against the background of society and politics of his times, a richly tangled context described in a succinct and lively way.
Tensions between King's virtues and faults, between his gifts and blind spots, make for drama in the day-to-day unfolding of his quest to bring justice and equality of opportunity to his people. JFK's procrastination as he weighed the political costs to his career of taking a position on the Civil Rights movement makes one realize how much of history becomes a coherent narrative (or seems to become coherent) only in hindsight.
King's accomplishments and most famous words make him a familiar figure in the American consciousness. Besides reminding us of these, Hodgson's book does also traces King's personal and spiritual development, from someone who dreaded imprisonment and the thought of dying, to someone able to walk willingly, head high, into peril. In part King did so because he had faith in God, and in part he did so because he knew that facing danger was the only way he could bring about the great changes he sought. But Hodgson also makes clear that King fought within his soul to transform himself into the courageous man he became. Winning this internal battle through hard personal soul-work makes him as admirable to me as were his accomplishments in helping to win the justice that African Americans deserved.
The story of a gifted young black man who became one of the greatest leaders of the American Century invites comparisons with our current President's story, but of course, without the precedents and changes wrought by his predecessor, the American public might never have known Barack Obama's name.
The book is Martin Luther King, from U. Michigan Press. Enjoy!