In the second volume of the three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with PARTING THE WATERS, winner of the Pulitzer Prize Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage. Beginning where PARTING THE WATERS left off with the death of JFK, PILLAR OF FIRE recounts the rise of the movement that stirred from Southern black churches to challenge the national conscience. PILLAR OF FIRE covers the far-flung upheavals of the years ...
Read More
In the second volume of the three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with PARTING THE WATERS, winner of the Pulitzer Prize Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage. Beginning where PARTING THE WATERS left off with the death of JFK, PILLAR OF FIRE recounts the rise of the movement that stirred from Southern black churches to challenge the national conscience. PILLAR OF FIRE covers the far-flung upheavals of the years 1963-1965, including Dallas, St. Augustine, Mississippi Freedom Summer, LBJ's Great Society and the Civil Rights Act of 1963, Vietnam and Selma. Taylor provides a frank portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. revealing him to be haunted by blackmail, factionalism, and hatred while he tried to hold the non-violent movement together as a dramatic force in history. Allies, rivals, and opponents addressed racial issues that went deeper than fair treatment at bus stops or lunch counters. Participants on all sides stretched themselves and their country to the breaking point over the meaning of simple words: dignity, equal votes, equal souls.
Read Less
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $2.26, good condition, Sold by More Than Words rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Waltham, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. . All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Your purchase supports More Than Words, a nonprofi t job training program for youth, empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $2.48, fair condition, Sold by BookHolders rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gambrills, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $2.74, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill of Greater Milwaukee rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Milwaukee, WI, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. The cover has visible markings and wear. The cover has curled corners. The pages show normal wear and tear. Codes or product keys that accompany this product may not be valid. Fast Shipping in a Standard Poly Mailer!
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $2.92, good condition, Sold by Goodwill of Colorado rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
This item is in overall good condition. Covers and dust jackets are intact but may have minor wear including slight curls or bends to corners as well as cosmetic blemishes including stickers. Pages are intact but may have minor highlighting/ writing. Binding is intact; however, spine may have slight wear overall. Digital codes may not be included and have not been tested to be redeemable and/or active. Minor shelf wear overall. Please note that all items are donated goods and are in used condition. Orders shipped Monday through Friday! Your purchase helps put people to work and learn life skills to reach their full potential. Orders shipped Monday through Friday. Your purchase helps put people to work and learn life skills to reach their full potential. Thank you!
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $3.03, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $3.03, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $3.03, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $3.03, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $3.04, good condition, Sold by The Maryland Book Bank rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Add this copy of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 to cart. $3.74, good condition, Sold by Blue Vase Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Interlochen, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Simon & Schuster.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
The item shows wear from consistent use but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact including the dust cover if applicable. Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs access code or other supplemental materials.
There has been much praise for this book, most of which I would second. It is vital reading for any student of American history. It is well written; indeed, I felt the writing style was more literary and more suspenseful than PTW. The allocation of styles is sensible; the straightforward, conservative narrative style of PTW is helpful for readers new to the subject, while POF follows with a somewhat more daring style of narration, for readers now familiar with the main characters.
Readers would be advised to note this is essentially a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr, and not so much an account of the civil rights movement. Not only that, unlike Garrow's *Bearing the Cross* , it addresses MLK as a thinker and philosopher of nonviolence[*], not as a political actor. Every element in Branch's books is marshaled to illustrate or test King's doctrine of nonviolence. While Branch possibly had other motives, a lot of the criticisms of his book can be explained away with this hypothesis..(Examples of criticism include the meager attention to other characters in the Civil Rights Movement, brief references to the women, or lack of any sort of radical analysis. While Branch has responded to criticism of his male-centric account of this period, I will merely add that women--white or black--seldom posed a challenge to nonviolence. Likewise, Branch does not attempt to assess the forces driving racism itself, and what caused those forces suddenly to weaken or capitulate. This is about a philosophical approach.)
The rival approach to King's philosophy of nonviolence, during this period, was a posture of confrontation (adopted by the Nation of Islam and by King's adversaries in Florida and Mississippi). "Posturing" is an intermediate stance between violence and nonviolence, and it was the choice of a surprising number of white adversaries still hoping to bluff their way out of a violent confrontation. At this time, the appeal to "states rights" had proven to be a legalistic shell game of evasion, and one doomed to end badly for the segregationists. At the same time, the Nation of Islam was adopting militant rhetoric it could not seriously dream of putting into practice. By adopting a discipline of confrontation and central control, the NOI was able to create an entirely new conception of the African American in the minds of white Americans, as a potentially fierce and truculent contender in America's endless civic brawls.
In both cases, the strategy of posturing violence was to collapse in internal struggles. The whites who sought to discourage King's soul power in Mississippi pushed the envelope of posturing--of intimidation and belligerent confrontation--to the point that the ruling white caste began to lose face and succumbed to the enforcer "rednecks." The NOI split along personality lines, with Malcolm X being driven from the inner circle of Elijah Muhammad, then forming a charismatic dissenting ummah of non-sectarian Muslims, and exposing the deep contradictions in the NOI's radical pretensions.
While the NOI plays a smaller role in the book than I have implied, it is fitting that the book begins with a NOI confrontation with the police, and ends with a deadly confrontation between NOI and its most famous ex-member, Malcolm X. The ideal of establishing Black Pride through a personality cult was to prove an unmitigated disaster for the NOI, while the ideal of defeating nonviolent action through constant state harassment was to severely wound the South's ruling class. ___________________________________________________ [*] In my review of *At Canaan's Edge* I address King's doctrine of "nonviolence" in more detail; but "nonviolence" is a very inadequate term to describe the concept.
