Martin Luther King

by Godfrey Hodgson

Martin Luther King left an indelible mark on 20th-century American history through his leadership of the non-violent civil rights campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s. The election of Barack Obama as America's first black president in November 2008 has spawned a renewed interest in King's role as an agent and prophet of political change in the United States.

Writing with verve and clarity but also with acute insight, Godfrey Hodgson traces King's life and 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 the Black Baptist milieu 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.

Martin Luther King is a rounded and fascinating portrait of a Christian prophet and the most brilliant orator of his age, the central message of whose life and ministry was that Americans would never be fully free until they accepted that black and white Americans must be equal.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Politics, American History

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 5, 2009

About the author

Godfrey Hodgson was a White House correspondent for a London newspaper with a desk in the Washington Post newsroom during the Kennedy and Johnson years. He has worked as a reporter for print and television throughout the United States and has written sixteen books, most dealing with people and issues in American politics. He taught at Oxford University and lives in Oxfordshire, U.K.

Reviews

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very painful to say that I didn't enjoy this book. I don't want to say that but I'm really struggling to finish this book. This is a very informative and well elaborated of Dr. King's life but..... it was very dull. It's like reading a textbook which you are forced to do it rather than you yourself interested in it. I almost give up, to be honest but I am already halfway through. 230 pages and not one bit hooked me right away. I watched his documentaries and movie about Dr King and sadly, they are more interesting than this book. Sad indeed, if you were to ask me. However, the chronological of his life is build up and the pace is not too fast. You can see how each event shaped Dr King's to be a great politician and sharp orator as history told so. For just that, I'm giving it 4 stars.

[Mallen Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pros - MLK is presented in context, with all the moral ambiguities but still giving due account of his achievements and his influence. It paints a vivid picture of the times and some of the atrocities of racial segregation in the south - astonishing when you reflect on how recent these events actually were. The cons - the non-linear style of relating events is distracting, and prevents you from being fully engaged in his story and development. It was fine - but you should be able to make a more compelling narrative from this history than the book manages.

[donna crombie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just could not get into this book. Lots of dates very informative but it was a hard read.

[David Campton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was given to my teenage son because he is studying history. As a primer on MLK's life and work it is certainly a good place to start though it is repetitive in places and isn't entirely chronological in its approach, which is appropriate given the complexity of the issues involvedd, but it does confuse any sense of a timeline. It isn't a hagiography and leaves us in no doubt regarding his moral ambiguities (putting it mildly) but it skates over his personal, family and indeed local church life. It is notable in that it is written by someone with first hand experience of King, but decades after his death, immediately after the election of Barack Obama as the first black US President. He rightly notes that this perhaps wouldn't have been possible without MLK. He also notes that the Presidencies of Nixon and Reagan would not have been possible without a new right wing political axis generated by the reaction to MLK and the political reforms he prompted. Sadly a further decade on that right wing axis and the residual racism in the US has responded to MLK's presidential inheritor Barack Obama, with potentially a more toxic political legacy.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a seasoned curmudgeon whose youth was squandered throughout the 1960's, I have long retained a special interest in the politics and culture of that distant decade. Godfrey Hodgson's biography of Martin Luther King Jr., published in 2009, may be a useful epitome to introduce the man and his political progress. Personally I found it rather stodgy, even though it is a book of just over two hundred pages.
I found it quite surprising that for a historian, the author makes no mention of the civil trial of 1999 brought by the King family v Loyd Jowers and no comment on the jury verdict in that case, in the chapter that Mr Hodgson entitles 'Detective Story'. He writes, "There is, in other words (in my opinion, though many disagree), little serious doubt that James Earl Ray pulled the trigger of the model 760 Remington rifle and killed Dr. King."
To discover serious doubt consult 'The Plot to Kill King' (2016) Dr. William F. Pepper.

[Elyse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the amount of work that went into this. However, apart from being a biography on MLK, this is also a how-to on making a book about an interesting historical figure in a tumultuous era overly complicated and tedious to read. Perhaps I'm just not in the target audience, but I expected to learn more from this. Although the second half was slightly better, during the first-half there was so much name dropping and switching between time periods that I had trouble keeping up despite being quite the history buff.

[Arie Kok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grondig en deskundig portret van het fenomeen Martin Luther King. Hodgson legt het accent op de rol die MLK in de jaren '60 speelde in de Civil Rights Movement, waardoor er veel politieke verwikkelingen in het boek voorkomen. Dat maakt sommige hoofdstukken wat taai, en we krijgen niet veel zicht op de innerlijke roerselen van King, laat staan op zijn theologie. Maar Hodgson is goed ingevoerd in de materie en schrijft met vaart. Bovendien is zijn verhaal niet bepaald een hagiografie, hij geeft een eerlijk beeld van de complexe persoonlijkheid die King ook was.

[Adeela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was great to read alongside my History course for Civil Rights in America. It does talk about King's campaigns in detail so theres plenty of notes you could take. However, I had to force myself to read some parts of the book and that may just have been because I already knew about Martin King's work and campaigns that he had been doing and the opposition he faced. Nonetheless, its still a good read and a good study material.

[Joe Armistead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not just a detailed biography of King but also an excellent explanation of the impact of his life on the changes in tolerance and respect in American society. Without King, America would not be what it is today.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can tell this book was written by a historian. A bit too dry for my taste, but nevertheless good for those who literally want to have their facts straight

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I'm away from home 25 to 27 days a month. Fucking's a form of anxiety reduction." Not one of MLK's most revered quotes, funnily enough...

[Mark McKenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fitting that I finished it on the anniversary of his death, and nothing was said on the news over here in England. I think we live now in an age where people know there was once a man named Martin Luther King, who did something good once upon a time, but that's it. They/we have no idea of the full extent of what he did. And I get the impression all people want to talk about is the shagging. The only thing he did wrong. The book itself is a great insight to one of the world's greatest living men. One of a few that actually changed it. It's a short read, but it can teach you a lot.

[Chris Majoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goede, vlot leesbare biografie over één van de mensen die een bijzondere betekenis hebben gespeeld in de geschiedenis van de VS. Zijn leven kan natuurlijk niet beschreven worden zonder in te gaan op de sociologische en politieke omstandigheden in de VS van midden vorige eeuw. De biografie is goed: niet te detailistisch, maar geeft toch goed weer wie MLK was: met nadruk zowel op zijn talenten als aandacht voor zijn twijfels en zwaktes.

[Graham Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this fairly short and accessible book. It is honest about King as a man of his background and time, imperfect and yet gifted. Exhausted on times and yet an inspiration to many. The book held my attention without trying to be sensational in any way.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative but dull in parts.

[Oren Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book opened up the world of autobiographies for me.
I found it so heart-warming and inspiring.
Will definitely read it again some day.

[Ariel Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this biography, it's well done and in the end it has a short analysis about the effects in the present time. But I have to warn you that sometimes it is difficult to read , it gets slow.

[Joo Parn Ong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even a man like Martin Luther King wasn't a perfect man. But through his imperfections he has changed America. Without him, America wouldn't have been the same as it is today