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stevenyenzer's review against another edition
4.0
I got a bit lost in the weeds for this second volume of Taylor Branch's account of MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. It is a remarkable achievement and tells an extremely important story, but Pillar of Fire was just less compelling than its predecessor, Parting the Waters. I'm so glad I have an exhaustively researched account of this movement -- I just wish it had been as readable and riveting as Branch's first effort.
samantha_shain's review against another edition
3.0
The first installment of the Branch trilogy was much more aligned with my taste, as it had a greater focus on community organizing and a less focus on federal intervention and national party politics. I thought the trope of synchronicity felt a bit forced and the sections on the War in Vietnam seemed underdeveloped or out of place. Certainly they lacked the depth of the parallel stories of civil rights work in Alabama and Mississippi and the transformation of Malcolm X. I am intrigued by the stories of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and may endeavor to read another book on that subject.
davehershey's review against another edition
5.0
Who Should Read This Book - People who are REALLY into American history and want a DEEP DIVE into the story of the Civil Rights movement.
What’s the Big Takeaway - Branch stays focused on the story and avoids drawing lessons for today, so any take-always are up to the reader. That said, I’d say the big takeaway is this history is quite recent and we’re still working towards King’s dream.
And a quote:
“In Selma, Martin Luther King confronted furies ahead. In order to win the vote, movement spirits in many small places would have to lift politics into history. Beyond the vote lay Vietnam, which would spoil the celebrations of freedom that had been set in train over the past two years. King’s inner course was fixed downward toward the sanitation workers of Memphis. It was his course, but it was getting lonely. Neither King nor the movement could turn America into a mass meeting, but for three more years they could look to a distant one, at Canaan’s edge” (613)
This book is thick and filled with lots of names. I’m not gonna lie and say I read every word. I could have used a bit more focus and a bit fewer names. But then it would be a different book and this book (this series) is one we need. Even if only professional historians read it closely and amateurs read it less closely, its fitting because we’re still living it.
After finishing, I looked up some of those names that all kind of run together - Bob Moses, Diane Nash, James Bevel - and a lot of them are still alive! Look at arguments about the filibuster and voting rights - we’re still in the same struggle and the way voter suppression is going, we may be going backwards.
Three points from the book:
1. This is Malcolm X’s book. He did not appear in the first one but we got a lot of him here. His autobiography covered much of his life, but if I recall, was less about his later life after leaving the Nation of Islam. Branch picks up the story, without going into Malcom’s roots as much, so the autobiography would be a good supplement. I was surprised to learn Malcolm spoke at Selma at one point and how connected he was in 1964 and 1965 to King.
2. 1964 Democratic Convention looms large. Prior to the 1960s the Democrat party was dominated by white southerners. This began to shift and the 1964 convention was huge. While most white Democrats said they’d stay in the party, a few said if the Democrats embraced black southerners they’d leave. And they did. Soon the parties would look like what they do today.
3. Legacy - I was struck by the words and actions of so many sheriffs and politicians in the south, fighting against integration. This is what they are remembered for. That’s sad. May we be remembered not for our hate, but for our love.
Overall, a long book full of names that is a necessary and brilliant work of history.
What’s the Big Takeaway - Branch stays focused on the story and avoids drawing lessons for today, so any take-always are up to the reader. That said, I’d say the big takeaway is this history is quite recent and we’re still working towards King’s dream.
And a quote:
“In Selma, Martin Luther King confronted furies ahead. In order to win the vote, movement spirits in many small places would have to lift politics into history. Beyond the vote lay Vietnam, which would spoil the celebrations of freedom that had been set in train over the past two years. King’s inner course was fixed downward toward the sanitation workers of Memphis. It was his course, but it was getting lonely. Neither King nor the movement could turn America into a mass meeting, but for three more years they could look to a distant one, at Canaan’s edge” (613)
This book is thick and filled with lots of names. I’m not gonna lie and say I read every word. I could have used a bit more focus and a bit fewer names. But then it would be a different book and this book (this series) is one we need. Even if only professional historians read it closely and amateurs read it less closely, its fitting because we’re still living it.
After finishing, I looked up some of those names that all kind of run together - Bob Moses, Diane Nash, James Bevel - and a lot of them are still alive! Look at arguments about the filibuster and voting rights - we’re still in the same struggle and the way voter suppression is going, we may be going backwards.
Three points from the book:
1. This is Malcolm X’s book. He did not appear in the first one but we got a lot of him here. His autobiography covered much of his life, but if I recall, was less about his later life after leaving the Nation of Islam. Branch picks up the story, without going into Malcom’s roots as much, so the autobiography would be a good supplement. I was surprised to learn Malcolm spoke at Selma at one point and how connected he was in 1964 and 1965 to King.
2. 1964 Democratic Convention looms large. Prior to the 1960s the Democrat party was dominated by white southerners. This began to shift and the 1964 convention was huge. While most white Democrats said they’d stay in the party, a few said if the Democrats embraced black southerners they’d leave. And they did. Soon the parties would look like what they do today.
3. Legacy - I was struck by the words and actions of so many sheriffs and politicians in the south, fighting against integration. This is what they are remembered for. That’s sad. May we be remembered not for our hate, but for our love.
Overall, a long book full of names that is a necessary and brilliant work of history.
muhly22's review against another edition
5.0
This is a continuation of Parting the Waters, Branch's first book in the three-volume history of the Civil Rights movement during the King years. The second work was just as magisterial as the first, and really is a mind-changing look at the Civil Rights movement, and what the participants had to fight against.
bobbo49's review against another edition
5.0
I am moved by the coincidence of finishing this book, and with it (out of order, naturally) the trilogy, on the date of the Supreme Court argument over the constitutionality of the 2006 renewal of the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 version of which was the last legislative act of this middle saga of the King years. Malcolm X, Lyndon Johnson, the deplorable J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI, early stirrings of Vietnam, and the many other actors of the civil rights era, heroes and villains, share this story, which we all know is by no means completed. The details and the big picture still evoke awe and disgrace, admiration and disgust. Branch's lengthy but illuminating masterpieces are a necessary piece of history for the present and future generations.
adamvolle's review against another edition
5.0
Little does more for my despair about circumstances today than to read about how the odds were stacked against the good guys during the Civil Rights Era.
marystevens's review against another edition
5.0
The second in Taylor Branch's authoritative trilogy America In The King Years has a broader scope than Parting The Waters because so much happened in the country from the time of LBJ's swearing in on Air Force One to the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We learn about the deceit which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and thus to the Vietnam War, the charismatic but troubled Malcolm X and his assassination ordered by the corrupt and immoral Elijah Mohammed, LBJ's masterful shepherding of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act through Congress, SNCC and the brutal murders of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney during Mississippi Freedom Summer, the railroading of the the heroic Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic Convention, all this and more Martin Luther King was involved in but we haven't even focused on him yet.
Despite being wiretapped and vilified by the aging and vindictive J. Edgar Hoover, these three years show MLK triumphant. Following an exhausting schedule (he was hospitalized more than once) Martin deftly handles difficulties in organizing and ultimate success in St. Augustine, Florida, whirlwind fund raising, sermons and speeches all across the country and in Europe, where he has an audience with the Pope (despite Hoover's best efforts), organizing for the 3 Marches from Selma to Montgomery (including Bloody Sunday) and a second trip to Norway to collect the Nobel Peace Prize.
Branch describes the difficulties and successes of organizing and we meet some the unsung heroes: Bob Moses, Rep. John Lewis, Vernon Dahmer, Fannie Lou Hamer but the real heroes of the civil rights movement are the ministers and black students who went into the little towns in the south and the farmers, mechanics and teachers who responded to them, suffered and sometimes died in the great struggle for equality. A struggle we are still engaged in today, 50 years later.