Tom Landess

A valuable book on the career, up to that point, of Jesse Jackson. It was written during the 1980s (after the 1988 election, I think), which has its strengths and its weaknesses. It's dated, obviously; but it can't simply harp on Jackson for being a shameless, one-dimensional racial ambulance chaser and extortionist, because he hadn't exactly become that yet. I don't much care about whatever the author's viewpoint is; but if you think it might have been written by some racist, that is show more unlikely, because the foreword is by Dr. Ralph Abernathy, who was Dr. King's second-in-command at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I had the impression that the authors are African-American, but there are no pictures of them. show less