Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: PARTING THE WATERS by Taylor Branch ISBN: 0-671-68742-5 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.9 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Authentic & Comprehensive History of Civil Rights Movement
Comment: Presenting an authentic and comprehensive picture of the mammoth civil rights movement in the United States in the post WWII era is a daunting task, yet noted author and journalist Taylor Branch has succeeded masterfully with this, the first of a two-volume history of the struggle of blacks in America to find justice, equality and parity with the mainstream white society. Tracing the rise of the singular leader personified in the young Rev. Martin Luther King, Branch sets the stage for a wide range of events, personalities, and public issues. This is truly a wonderful read, fascinating, entertaining, and endlessly detailed in its description of people and events, and quite insightful in its chronicling of the fortune of those social forces that created, sustained, and accomplished the single most momentous feat of meaningful social action in our nation's contemporary history.
His range of subjects is necessarily wide and deep, and we find coverage of every aspect of the tumultuous struggle beginning in the deep South, and gradually working its way north and west until most of the urban northeast also surrendered to the battle cry for civil rights and justice under the law. In many respects this borders on being a biography of Martin Luther King and his times, yet Branch so extends his coverage of the eddies and currents of the movement itself that it appears to be by far the most comprehensive and fair-minded treatment of the civil rights movement published to date. Whether covering the issue of Martin Luther King's own personal life, his internal philosophical concerns, or his appetite for young white women, the reader is engaged with every element of this and a thousand other personalities, issues, and events that carved out the history of our country for almost twenty years.
One finds a very detailed of the Kennedy involvement in the movement, first as a purely political ploy to help to win the black vote in the extremely tight race for the Presidency in 1960, and then as an administration struggling to do what was right in the face of enormous social, political, and even economic opposition. Here too we find an absorbing account of how the FBI attempted to infiltrate and influence the movement, with J. Edgar Hoover's adroit political savvy and deep-seated racism causing great difficulty and a number of tribulations for the civil rights cause. The names and places and events described here are legion, and one gets the sense that anyone who had a conscience was involved, and many of the names mentioned later went on to greater accomplishment and further noteworthy contribution in their public lives and careers.
This, then, is a stupendous first volume of a wonderful two-volume history of the civil rights movement in the United States, and covers the period from the late 1950s when the first rumblings of the movement were sounded until just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November of 1963. The second volume picks up the thread thereafter, extending out through the Johnson years and including aspects of the coalescence of the movement with the Vietnam anti-war protest. This is a wonderful book, and one I would consider essential reading for anyone with an interest in American history in the 20th century. I highly recommend both books, and I hope you appreciate reading them as much as I did. Enjoy!
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding social history
Comment: Taylor Branch has written a magnificent history of the early civil rights movement, using the life and career of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a framework. Although there is a great deal of information about King's life both public and private, other key players in this great drama also receive extensive treatment. Some, such as John & Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover, are well-known. Others have received far less recognition: Vernon Johns, the powerful itinerant country preacher who was a kind of grandfather to the movement; Bayard Rustin, whose unconventional lifestyle clashed with political reality in a way that caused much pain to King; Stanley Levison, one of King's closest confidante's and advisors, from whom King was pressured to distance himself because of alleged communist ties; Bob Moses, a tireless, courageous worker who toiled for years in the Deep South to register Negroes for the vote.
Branch also narrates events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom Rides with the you-are-there immediacy of an eyewitness reporter and the eye for detail of a novelist. This book is a very satisfying and informative read.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Classic History of the Civil Rights Movement
Comment: This is an epic.
It discusses the early years of the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of Martin Luther King Jr. and those around him. The cast of characters ranges from the cantankerous Vernon Johns - a hobo preacher with a doctorate - to the truly bizarre and paranoid J. Edgar Hoover, seeking to destroy king and those around him based on what can only be described as bogus and hyped intelligence of communist infiltration, to the young idealistic members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Comittee, to a President and Attourney General (JFK and RFK) who don't know what to think and really just wish the whole problem would just go away.
It is a long haul (921 pages) and very emotionally draining so be prepared but it is worth every page and very much due the Pulitzer prize that it earned.
 |
Title: PILLAR OF FIRE: AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS 1963-65 by Taylor Branch ISBN: 0684848090 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 20 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
 |
Title: Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 by Juan Williams ISBN: 0140096531 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
 |
Title: Bearing the Cross : Martin Luther King, Jr., And The Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David Garrow ISBN: 0688166326 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 06 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis, Michael D'Orso ISBN: 0156007088 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 18 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
 |
Title: Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality 1890-2000 by Adam Fairclough ISBN: 0142001295 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 25 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
