If you have some time today, I found James Fallows’ interview of Taylor Branch, Martin Luther King’s biographer, fascinating. He’s just released a book that picks out 18 key moments from his three-volume King biography, and it’s also been released in an e-book edition that includes audio and video content for each of those events. He traces the current Tea Party anti-government rhetoric back to the segregationist politicians of King’s era, talks about LBJ getting short shrift, especially about his reformation of the Democratic party and the kind of political courage it took to do that, and also a bit about college sports.
Taylor Branch
by $8 blue check mistermix| 22 Comments
This post is in: Post-racial America
Baud
I just finished Caro’s latest on LBJ, and, not surprisingly, that was his sentiment as well when it came to civil rights.
Elizabelle
Wow. Thanks. I hadn’t seen.
Gary Wills has an essay up on “Dumb America.”
Why yes, it deals with the South.
Omnes Omnibus
The people who would give credit to LBJ for civil rights are largely the same group who, rightly, excoriate him for escalation in Vietnam.
Mark S.
Something starting with the letter V . . .
NotMax
Still recall how visually shocking it was at the time to see pix of LBJ in retirement, with long hair grown down nearly to his shoulders.
Brian R.
@Omnes Omnibus:
No, it’s possible to praise LBJ for the very significant work he did on Civil Rights — putting real teeth in JFK’s moderate civil rights bill and ramrodding it through Congress, pushing through the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, working closely with King, Farmer and others (which they themselves acknowledged was key) — and at the same time blame him for the escalation in Vietnam.
It’s called not being a moron.
Linda Featheringill
Amazon has a good price for Mr. Branch’s new book, The King Years. Kindle version is 11.00 and actual book is not much more. So this is presently on my wish list.
It looks interesting. Book Club?
rikyrah
I shall look up the ebook.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brian R.: My point was that he will never be well regarded. One can argue whether VN outweighs civil rights or the other way around, but Johnson’s legacy includes both.
PeakVT
@Elizabelle: Wills had one too many mint juleps before writing that one.
Napoleon
@Baud:
As did I, last night in fact.
Brian R.
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, that’s my point too. Sorry for misunderstanding you completely and being dickish about it. Apparently I need more coffee.
rdldot
I love Taylor Branch. Thanks for the link. I could listen to him forever. His stories are always wonderful and he has one of those voices that just soothe you.
sharl
Great link (and thankyew freezing rain-related work delay, for giving me the unexpected gift of sufficient time to listen)!
Mnemosyne
I ended up buying Parting the Waters electronically and giving my paper copy away — that book is thicker than Nixonland, which actually aggravated my carpal tunnel problems when I tried to read it.
Elizabelle
@PeakVT:
Little bit of a broad brush, but Wills makes some good points. Like how the South used to enjoy large government spending on its behalf.
Still does, but it’s verboten to acknowledge same.
And the part about climate change hitting the South, hard, whether they deny its existence or not.
PeakVT
@Elizabelle: The specific points about climate change and the like are fine, but hardly new. The top half of the essay, though, is execrable.
Phoenix_rising
@Mnemosyne: Have you tried the hardback edition of David Halberstam’s ‘The Children’?
(ducks) Makes a fine doorstop.
Short Bus Bully
Great link. Just bought the e-book. Looking forward to powering through it, thanks for the good tip.
dww44
Thanks for the video of this interview. It’s well worth the hour, every bit of it. As one who came of age during the 60’s and in the South, I am sharing this with all friends and family, even if some of them are of the opposite political persuasion. They may not listen to it, but they darn well should.
Groucho48
His MLK books should be required reading in schools. He does try to cram too much stuff in and it can be difficult to sort out who is doing what when, but, they are a definitive retelling of an important time. One of my favorite passages:
Xan Miller
For those of you into collegiate sports, Branch’s article on the NCAA is well worth reading.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/308643/