At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68

The first book was excellent; the second book was pretty good; this one, like the civil rights movement itself, foundered a bit on the Vietnam War. The civil rights movement was already too big and had too much to discuss - these books weren't particularly clear in explaining why some people or events were included and others weren't - and adding Vietnam just compounded the issue.

I find Branch's style too terse; the really significant moments in his narrative almost seem to get less attention than the trivial. It's an important history, and worth such a full retelling. But honestly, you'll appreciate this book more if you're already familiar with the basic contours of the story.

The concluding volume of historian Taylor Branch's trilogy about the Civil Rights era (which began with the Pulitzer-Prize-winning "Parting the Waters" and continued with "Pillar of Fire") follows the final years of Martin Luther King's life, from the struggles in Selma in 1965 to his assassination in April 1968. In this volume, Branch explicitly follows the analogy of King to Moses found in the titles of the books, drawn from King's final public address, often known as the "I have been to the mountaintop" address.

While the comparison to Moses is unavoidable -- King oratorically placing himself on the mountaintop overlooking the promised land the night before his death is impossible to avoid -- Branch also implicitly compares King to show more another leader in this book, Jesus Christ. The fourth and final section of the book, titled "Passion," might point to any religious martyrdom, but also points Christ's crucifixion.

In a nutshell, this overarching narrative frame is the strength and the limitation of this very fine book. Branch continues to focus on King as the soul of America in the Civil Rights era. This is difficult to avoid, King's presence looms largest over the time, but Branch's careful history demonstrates that King by the end of his life, the Civil Rights movement had fragmented and marginalized King and his leadership. The narrative arc, though, leads to the unfortunate conclusion that the best of the era ended with King's death, which conveniently fits into our desire for historical starting points and ending points, but which doesn't really fit the data.

This is a quibble, though, in the face of Branch's staggering depth and insight as he presents the events of these years. In particular, Branch is skilled at evoking the key personalities of the age in all of the complexity. If King is the conscience of this time period, President Lyndon Johnson is the anguished soul, struggling to do the right thing in the face of significant opposition -- both political opposition and his own inner demons. If possible, Johnson might even be a more compelling figure in this book than King.

Branch details the divided efforts for Civil Rights after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act: the voter registration drives in the southern states, including the formation of the Black Panther political party for the 1966 election in Alabama; the protests against the war in Vietnam; the demand for better housing in the north; the reactions to continued violence against activists and volunteers; marches in support of striking workers.

In the end, Branch believes that it is King's continued practice of nonviolence throughout this era, and particularly in the final years of his life, that is the great legacy of the age. If this seems a rather trite conclusion given conventional wisdom about the Civil Rights era, the narrative impact of this is striking. The divided efforts of the age lead to divided strategies, with nonviolence being shelved by most other activists as unproductive or even counter-productive. King alone, Branch argues, followed nonviolence to the end.

The book is fascinating, and is certainly a worthy final volume in Branch's trilogy. It is difficult to overstate Branch's achievement with the three books. They have been acclaimed by most critics, and rightly so. show less

This is a very well written history of the United States during 4 years at the height of the Civil Rights era and escalation in the U.S. involvement in Vietnam War. I lived through this period and well remember it, but was still surprised at some of the things I had forgotten, like the rise of the Black Panthers and how very influential J. Edgar Hoover was in many, many areas he never should have been involved in. After reading the book I had greater respect for Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. and total revulsion toward J. Edgar Hoover.

I don't have time at the moment to give this book the review I want to write, but just a placeholder to say -- Wow. Even better than the first. Until now I've always thought of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's and the Vietnam protests as separate phases of history; this book completely and compellingly explains how they were intertwined -- and the dilemma it created for King, who saw non-violence as his calling, as much as Civil Rights.

4132 At Canaan's Edge America in the King Years 1965-68, by Taylor Branch (read 23 Feb 2006) This is the third and final volume of Branch's magisterial work on the King years. I read volume I on 15 Dec 1994 and volume II on 31 Jan 1999. This volume has 771 pages of text, 202 pages of footnotes and an eleven page bibliography. It is as far as I can tell perfectly done, and is unmitigatedly absorbing reading, as it tells the King story from Selma in March 1965 till the day he was killed in 1968--at which point the book stops, except for a superbly-done five page epilogue. One stands in amazement at how vicious the racism was in those years (1965-1968), not only in the South but in Chicago, e.g. , which makes one astounded how much things show more seem to have changed . The book tells much of LBJ and his interaction with King and of course his travail with the Vietnam dilemma. show less

Third in Taylor Branch's series of books about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement. Superb, a joy to read.