"[Sh]ould take a prominent place on the shelf of literature about the man who changed 20th century America." Publishers Weekly, Starred Review In this new biography, distinguished historian Paul Harvey examines Martin Luther King's life through his complex, emerging religious lives. Harvey introduces many readers, perhaps for the first or only time, to the King of diverse religious and intellectual influences, of an increasingly radical cast of thought, and of a mélange of intellectual influences that he aligned in becoming the spokesperson for the most important social movement of twentieth-century American history. Not only does Harvey chronicle King's metamorphosis and its impact on American and African American life, but he seeks to explain his "afterlives"-how in American culture King became transformed into a mainstream civil saint, shorn of his radical religious critique of how power functioned in America. Harvey's concise biography will allow readers to see King anew in the context of his time and today.

Paul Harvey is distinguished professor of history and presidential teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and the author of numerous books on American religious history including, with Rowman & Littlefield, Through the Storm, Through the Night: A History of African American Christianity (CHOICE Outstanding), and Bounds of Their Habitation: Race and Religion in American History. He is the coauthor with Edward J. Blum of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in American History, named as one of the top 25 academic books of the year by CHOICE and as one of the Best 5 Books on Religion for 2012 by Publishers Weekly.

In this new biography, distinguished historian Paul Harvey examines Martin Luther King's life through his complex, emerging religious lives. Harvey introduces many readers, perhaps for the first or only time, to the King of diverse religious and intellectual influences, of an increasingly radical cast of thought, and of a mélange of intellectual influences that he aligned in becoming the spokesperson for the most important social movement of twentieth-century American history. Not only does Harvey chronicle King's metamorphosis and its impact on American and African American life, but he seeks to explain his afterliveshow in American culture King became transformed into a mainstream civil saint, shorn of his radical religious critique of how power functioned in America. Harvey's concise biography will allow readers to see King anew in the context of his time and today.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

IntroductionThe Redemptive Power of Martin Luther King

1Growing Up King

2The Young Preacher in Boston and Montgomery

3The Montgomery Uprising

4Montgomery and SCLC

5The Dream, the Letter, and the Nightmare

6 Struggling in Selma and Chicago

7Shot Rings Out in the Memphis Sky

EpilogueThe Irrelevance of Sainthood: The Afterlives of King

Bibliographic Essay