- 318 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
King's Dream
About This Book
"Sundquist's careful, thoughtful study unearths new and fascinating evidence of the rhetorical traditions in King's speech."âDrew D. Hansen, author of The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech T hat Inspired a Nation "I have a dream"âno words are more widely recognized, or more often repeated, than those called out from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. King's speech, elegantly structured and commanding in tone, has become shorthand not only for his own life but for the entire civil rights movement. In this new exploration of the "I Have a Dream" speech, Eric J. Sundquist places it in the history of American debates about racial justiceâdebates as old as the nation itselfâand demonstrates how the speech, an exultant blend of grand poetry and powerful elocution, perfectly expressed the story of African American freedom. This book is the first to set King's speech within the cultural and rhetorical traditions on which the civil rights leader drew in crafting his oratory, as well as its essential historical contexts, from the early days of the republic through present-day Supreme Court rulings. At a time when the meaning of the speech has been obscured by its appropriation for every conceivable cause, Sundquist clarifies the transformative power of King's "Second Emancipation Proclamation" and its continuing relevance for contemporary arguments about equality. "The ['I Have a Dream']speech and all that surrounds itâbackground and consequencesâare brought magnificently to life... In this book he gives us drama and emotion, a powerful sense of history combined with illuminating scholarship."â The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- One Dreamerâ1963
- Two Freedom Now!
- Three Soul Force
- Four Lincolnâs Shadow
- Five Whose Country âTis of Thee?
- Six Not by the Color of Their Skin
- Appendix Martin Luther King, Jr., âI Have a Dreamâ
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- Index
- Foot Notes