King: The Life of Martin Luther King

In his landmark biography, Jonathan Eigs King provides a fresh perspective on the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by delving into recently declassified FBI files. The book offers an intimate portrayal of King as a courageous and often emotionally troubled individual who fought for peaceful protest but struggled with his own human frailties and dark moods. It sheds light on the King family's origins and explores his complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King portrays MLK as a deep thinker, brilliant strategist, and committed radical who led one of history's greatest movements and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain relevant today.

Format: Hardback
Length: 688 pages
Publication date: 16 May 2023
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd

The first full biography in decades, King mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life for our times.

Comprehensive and informative, Jonathan Eig's King harnesses exhaustive research and expert storytelling to craft a definitive account of the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. Featuring recently declassified FBI files, this vivid biography offers an intimate perspective on this courageous figure, his family, and fellow activists. Eig shines light on MLK's human frailties, complex relations, and struggles against his own government, as well as his relentless pursuit of justice, even in the face of death. Skilfully re-creating MLK's journey from classroom to streets, Eig presents a timely portrait of a deep thinker, brilliant strategist, and committed radical who helped shape the nation.

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. - and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.

He casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became its only modern-day founding father - as well as the nation's most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history's greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.

Weight: 910g
Dimension: 241 x 161 x 47 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781471181009